Wikipedia:WikiProject Weather/Non-tropical storms task force/Newsletter/Archive 3

Volume III, Issue 3, June 8, 2021 ←(Previous issues) 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 → The Frozen Times The Frozen Times is the semi-regular newsletter of WikiProject Weather's Non-tropical storms task force. The newsletter aims to summarize recent developments and activities in the task force, in addition to recent extratropical cyclone activity on a global scale. The Frozen Times has been running since its revival in March 2021, although the first issue was published in February 2008. If you wish to receive or discontinue subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. This issue of The Frozen Times covers all task force-related events from March 15–June 7, 2021. This edition's authors and editors are HurricaneCovid and Super Cyclonic Storm Corona. Past editions can be viewed here.

Non-tropical storms task force: News and Developments WPNTS core editors continued implementing ideas to model templates after corresponding templates in WPTC from late March–early April. From March 23–25, {{Infobox storm}} was reformatted to more closely match {{Infobox tropical cyclone}}. From March 31–April 3, the idea of including a season effects section on winter season articles was implemented, involving the creation of three new templates. On April 2, LightandDark2000 created two new templates for the Regional Snowfall Index scale, modeled after Saffir-Simpson scale templates in WPTC. On April 12, {{Infobox winter storm current}} was created to be used for current winter storms, modeled after {{Infobox tropical cyclone current}} for current tropical cyclones. On April 21, HurricaneCovid introduced the idea of creating track maps for winter storms in the ocean, such as nor'easters, similar to how WPTC creates track maps for tropical cyclones. During late April, track maps were created for several nor'easters over the last few years. On April 1, the first round of the WPTC Cyclone Cup ended and the second round started. Also, the role of judge in the Cup was taken over by Hurricane Noah due to Destroyeraa becoming temporarily inactive due to school. In the first round, LightandDark2000 scored the highest with 110 points, with 30 of those points from WPNTS articles. MarioJump83 and HurricaneCovid were close behind, with 85 and 70 points, respectively. MarioJump83 scored all of their points from WPTC articles, while HurricaneCovid scored all of his from WPNTS. Jason Rees and CodingCyclone also made the cut, with 15 and 10 points, respectively. Skarmory and CycloneFootball71 were eliminated going into the second round. Based on a discussion in August 2020 regarding all weather-related WikiProjects, the WikiProject Meteorology community has decided to merge all former meteorology WikiProjects except WP Climate change into a new WikiProject Weather. Former WikiProjects, including WPNTS, have become task forces in the new WikiProject Weather. For instance, WPNTS is now the Non-tropical storms task force of WikiProject Weather. The merger has been occurring since April 2021, and is still in progress. New articles since the last newsletter Tornado outbreak of March 16–18, 2021 October 2017 North American storm complex Potential Tropical Cyclone Ten 2021 Eastern Australia floods Tornado outbreak sequence of March 24–28, 2021 Cyclolysis December 5–6, 2020 nor'easter February 12–14, 2017 North American blizzard Tropical Storm Melissa (2019) April 2021 nor'easter Typhoon Surigae New GAs since the last newsletter Subtropical Storm Alpha (2020) Member of The Edition – Master of Time Thank you, Juliancolton, Southern Illinois SKYWARN, JForget, Thegreatdr, and AstroHurricane001 Storms of The Edition over the last five newsletters Period Storm March 15–June 7, 2021 April 2021 nor'easter February 2008–March 14, 2021 February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm (Winter Storm Uri) December 2007–February 2008 January 2008 North American storm complex Storm of The Edition – April 2021 nor'easter Other significant storms March 2021 North American blizzard – ... Tornado outbreak of March 16–18, 2021 – ... Remnants of Typhoon Surigae – ... New task force members More information can be found here. The following list lists members who have joined/rejoined the task force since the last issue. TFESS (talk · contribs) StopBoi (talk · contribs) CodingCyclone (talk · contribs) Master of Time (talk · contribs) (Added because of userbox) Gummycow (talk · contribs) Wikihelp7586 (talk · contribs) DavidTheScientist (talk · contribs) Aegeou2 (talk · contribs) Undescribed (talk · contribs) LuigiIsSuppreme989 (talk · contribs) Beraniladri19 (talk · contribs) To our new members: welcome to the task force, and happy editing! Feel free to check the tasks or to-do lists towards the bottom of the newsletter for tasks that you might want to work on. To our veteran members: thank you for your edits and your tireless contributions! Featured Content Update New featured articles (March 15–June 7, 2021) None during this issue New good articles (March 15–June 7, 2021) Subtropical Storm Alpha (2020) Current candidates None during this issue Current assessment table Assessments are valid as of this printing. Depending on when you may be viewing this newsletter, the table may be outdated. See here for the latest, most up to date statistics. As of this issue, there are 13 featured articles and 1 featured list. There are 51 good articles, but only 3 A-class articles, perhaps because most articles of that quality already passed an FA review. There are 60 B-class articles, 144 C-class articles, 211 start-class articles, and 65 stub-class articles, with 15 lists. These figures mean that roughly one-fourth of the task force is rated B-class or better. Tropical Storm Rolf was the 20th GA in the task force. About the assessment scale → Task force Goals & Progress The following is the current progress on the three milestone goals set by the task force as of this publishing. Updates on the following goals can also be found on the task force home page. 30 featured pages: 46.7% complete 25 featured articles: 52% complete 100 good or better articles: 68% complete Task force tasks Articles to be merged 02 Nov 2024 – Cut-off low (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Cold drop by Klbrain (t · c); see discussion 04 Jul 2024 – Cyclone Lothar (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Storm Lothar by Dogfennydd (t · c); see discussion Task force to-do Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : October 2020 United States ice storm, Early December 2017 North American winter storm Cleanup : Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978, Nor'easter Merge : February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm and February 2021 North American cold wave Stubs : May 2016 North American storm complex Update : Cyclone Kyrill Verify : March 2008 Midwest floods Wikify : 2002 Central Plains ice storm The Rebirth of WPNTS, by HurricaneCovid Hi; this is my first opinion piece for The Frozen Times (or for any newsletter). Before I start, I would like to say that CodingCyclone is the one who actually suggested I write about this topic for my opinion piece. I would also like to thank LightandDark2000 for giving me a detailed history of WPNTS so I could properly write it. That's all, now on to the OP! WPNTS had its beginnings over a decade ago, less than 7 years after Wikipedia was created. The project was founded by Juliancolton on December 23, 2007, in the midst of the hyperactive and deadly 2007–08 North American winter. For the first time, editors interested in winter storms and extratropical cyclones had a place to collaborate on those types of articles. The project drew in a number of editors soon after it was founded, about 12–24 of them. They began improving extratropical cyclone articles, getting a number of them to GA or FA status. They had also began starting winter season articles, similar to current North American winter season articles but much, much longer. They set these season articles up from 2006–07 to 2009–10, and later reorganized them into "Global storm activity" articles. The WikiProject was never overly active, but it had a good amount of activity, with about 25–30 regularly active members keeping the project running. Project membership peaked from 2009–2011, when WPNTS had its "Golden Days" in terms of activity. However, project membership began to fall off sharply after 2011, and it was reduced to a core of about a dozen active users, which also slowly bled off over the next few years. Despite this, new members continued joining (some unofficially) through 2015, with some vital editors at the time including MarioProtIV, LightandDark2000, and our Member of The Edition, Master of Time. Master of Time began creating articles for North American winter seasons. To veteran editors, it was like a rebirth of the old winter season articles, but still different since these focused solely on North America. Activity continued at a level and steady pace on WPNTS through 2016, although it never returned to its peak. After 2016, more active members bled off as well, leaving behind a core of about 8 active members keeping the project running for the next few years. In 2018, inactivity began to grow particularly acute, with WPNTS being reduced to a small core of 4–5 active members. In 2019, the WikiProject was declared defunct. As put by LightandDark2000, "It was so inactive that no one even challenged it." Work on winter season articles continued, but only by a few WPTC members or the occasional passerby. Eventually, WPNTS managed to find the light at the end of the tunnel and end those dark times. The COVID-19 pandemic played a big role in that happening. Starting in mid-2020, WPNTS saw droves of new members joining, mostly WPTC members. Through the latter half of 2020, members joined at a steady rate, despite it still being officially "inactive". This was the largest influx of new members WPNTS had seen since its "Golden Days" over a decade ago. From May 2020 to the present, the number of active members blew up from 3 to 32. During this time, some longtime WPNTS editors, including Master of Time, MarioProtIV, and United States Man officially joined. MarioJump83 and I joined during late 2020, and with the help of LightandDark2000, we restarted the project. Members continued joining at a steady pace in 2021, with the active members list continuing to grow to this day. For the first time in nearly a decade, WPNTS was alive and running, and while we have not managed to return to the Golden Days, we hope we will be able to do so someday in the near future. I hope the new life in WPNTS continues to grow for a long time, and that new members keep the former project (now task force) alive and well. Signing off, ~ 🌀HurricaneCovid🌀 Write the next issue of The Frozen Times →

Comments

Nominations for MoTE

Master of Time (talk · contribs)

I am nominating Master of Time as the Member of The Edition for this issue, even though we have over 9 weeks before its publishing. Master of Time has been an active and prolific contributor to WPNTS articles, particularly with North American winter articles. He was also a crucial contributor to WPNTS from 2014–2018, and was one of the few editors keeping the Wikiproject alive at the time. For all his hard work to WPNTS, he deserves more recognition in the project, and for that reason I am nominating him for MoTE. 🌀HurricaneCovid🌀 _(contribs) 13:43, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

1. Support – Superb candidate. Master of Time has spent years working hard on winter storm articles, particularly the ones relating to storms in North America. He was maintaining those pages even as WPTNS membership was falling off. He even started the North American winter articles! He has also made plenty of contributions to severe weather articles. He deserves to be recognized. LightandDark2000 🌀 (talk) 03:38, 21 March 2021 (UTC)
2. Strong Support – Per above. -Shift674-🌀 ^contribs 14:49, 23 March 2021 (UTC)
3. Support - per above. CodingCyclone! 🌀 📘 02:09, 29 March 2021 (UTC)
4. Strong Support – Per above. ~~ 🌀𝚂𝙲𝚂 𝙲𝙾𝚁𝙾𝙽𝙰🌀 13:50, 29 March 2021 (UTC)