When looking up the great snow of Jan. 5, 1880 in Seattle, it turns out the West was so sparse that they didn't have enough observations to fill out a isobar map -- and Seattle didn't even rate on ...

So isobar maps are important for the general public. You know, if you want to look at a weather map, you’ll see those black lines, that they often have between the Hs and the Ls. That’s high pressure ...