Wikipedia:WikiProject Weather/Newsletter/2

Volume I, Issue 2, October 1, 2026 ←(Previous issues) · 2 · 3 → The Monthly Wiki-Weather Review Issue 2: Electric Boogaloo Edition This is the second edition the monthly newsletter involving Wikipedia's weather articles, including the severe weather and tropical cyclones projects. The newsletter aims to provide in summary the recent activities and developments of the WikiProject. If you wish to receive or discontinue your subscription to this newsletter, please visit the mailing list. Past editions can be viewed here. Editors: Hurricanehink (HH), Eoline (E)

New Featured and Good Content Since the last issue, the following became good articles : 2001 Pacific hurricane season 2008 Prattville–Millbrook tornado 2012 Branson tornado Selected new articles The following articles were written/published in the last month (or were missed). It excludes any of sub-articles within Weather of 2026. 1991 Springfield tornado 2012 Woodward tornado 2013 Shuqualak Tornado 2025 La Sal fire tornado List of Turkey tornadoes Tornado outbreak and derecho of June 21–22, 2026 Tornadoes in the United Kingdom Tornadoes in Massachusetts (missed in previous newsletter, published in May but only recently added to the Template:North America tornadoes) Tornado outbreak of July 8–9, 1927 Tropical Storm Polly (1992) (missed in previous newsletter, published in August) Development, Reminders, and Updates The NCDC Storm Events database recently updated, which changed all URL's. Although E changed most of them, there might be some old ones that still need to be fixed. The Atlantic hurricane reanalysis was updated on September 16 for 1971–75. Several editors helped to update the articles, although some articles still need to be updated, such as adding summaries of the new systems to the season articles. A recent discussion found consensus for removing most TCFA's (tropical cyclone formation alerts) from typhoon season articles. As the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is not the official agency for the basin, and many season articles are too long, this bit of information is generally not needed. Exceptions unclude when it's the JTWC peak for a system, such as a JMA-only TS. There is also a discussion about removing the JTWC term "Super Typhoon", partly due to PAGASA using that term, and because JMA uses "Violent typhoon". This would affect infoboxes and the leads of some articles. Future goals including using JMA data for track maps. There is a discussion about removing non-European tornadoes from the annual "List of European tornadoes", stemming from a discussion about tornadoes in Turkey, Russia, and north Africa that are not technically part of Europe. If you see new editors (and even current editors), remember not to be bite-y, and try and keep things civil and welcoming. Some people might edit for the first time when there is a major weather event in the news. It can be helpful to reach out to users directly. HH sometimes use a phrase like, "I see you have an interest in weather articles. While your edit might technically be true, it did not include a source. If you're interested in editing, I suggest you create a username so you can join the hundreds of editors working on the thousands of hurricane/tornado/blizzard/drought/haboob articles." (OK maybe just one of those weather types) Image of the month - Hurricane Polo offshore Mexico Hurricane Polo became the second-strongest recorded Pacific hurricane on September 22, when Hurricane Hunters recorded a minimum central pressure of 892 mbar (26.3 inHg). Polo attained Category 5 status three times before weakening and striking northwestern Mexico twice. Tasks/projects from previous newsletter - Issue 1 had a section for the series of weather articles. This included seasons or weather events by year, such as from Weather of 1946 to 1985 and from 1985 to 2000. Other ongoing tasks include updating tropical cyclone track maps, button bar templates, and changing the coding for the season infobox template to allow for violent typhoons. WCNA 2026 by E The 2026 edition of WikiConference North America was held in Edmonton, Canada, throughout the week of September 21, with at least one project member in attendance. Main topics included discussion of Wikimedia administration, WikiPortraits, and Wikimedia Commons. Interested editors are invited to read through this presentation, which was presented by User:Z1720 during the conference; it discusses how to write featured articles. A more complete weather encyclopedia Although Wikipedia isn't specifically a weather encyclopedia, it fulfills that role to an extent. The "List of [weather events] by area" series is getting finished one by one, even if there are still a lot to go. The following areas are among the most complete: United States (6) - Droughts, Floods, Hurricanes , Tornadoes, Snow, Wildfires California (4) - Hurricanes , Floods, Tornadoes , and Wildfires Arizona (3) - Hurricanes , Tornadoes, Wildfires Australia (5) - Bushfires, Droughts, Floods, Tornadoes, Tropical cyclones Canada (4) - Fires, Floods, Hurricanes, Tornadoes Europe (4) - European windstorms, Floods, Tornadoes, Tropical cyclones India (4) - Floods, Heat waves, Tornadoes, Tropical cyclones China (3) - Fires, Floods, Tornadoes Indonesia (3) - Floods (Jakarta only), Tornadoes, Tropical cyclones Turkey (3) - Drought, Heatwaves, Tornadoes Many areas could have a variety of lists. There's a draft for Tornadoes in Florida, which, if published, would join the above list. There is also a draft for Snow in Texas, which would also add Texas to the above list, assuming you counted the dab and quasi-article that is the List of Texas hurricanes (which you could help by adding climatology, the deadliest Texas tornadoes, and a list of (E)F5 tornadoes in the state). If you're interested in working on one of the potential location-based lists of weather impacts in an area, be bold and try it (maybe starting with a draft), or ask HH for help. The Merge-a-Thon Sweeps Up Tornadoes The previous newsletter mentioned the tropical cyclone merge-a-thon in which around 100 storm articles have been merged. There has also been an increase in proposed mergers of tornado-related articles to their parent tornado outbreak. Some of the main arguments have been about sustained lasting coverage (six months after the event), and whether the individual articles are a content fork from the outbreak article. There remains a need to codify tornado notability standards, with regards to outbreak and single tornado articles. The Paradox of Tolerance by HH It's important to assume good faith and be open-minded/welcoming as we build a more perfect encyclopedia. HH admits he has pushed his own preferences a bit too much at times. Discussions need to remain civil. But the Paradox of Tolerance can lead to bad outcomes. For instance, there has been a rise in articles written by AI, which is not allowed. Now that Wikipedia is over 25 years old, it has its fair share of people who were blocked, including sockpuppets trying to disrupt the positive legacy we've all built. That does not mean to assume that all new users are either using AI or are sockpuppets! Most editors started just like you. Still, if it seems like users are baiting you to engage in discussion, that might be in bad faith. At those times, be sure to take a deep breath, and remember that there's no deadline. Sometimes, a troublesome user will out themselves and get blocked, whether due to AI-writing or other bad habits. "If it looks/swims/quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. If you have evidence someone is abusing more than one Wikipedia account, see Sockpuppet investigations. Random fun thing found during Wikipedia research While working on Hurricane Agnes, 12george1* found this legendary document from the NHC archives: That the guest editor cut the tip of his middle finger of his left hand off this evening making a salad, and has left blood all over the typewriter, and that this finger is the one that hits all the e's, d's, c's and a few other things and is now very sore. I quit! !!!!! @@@@@ ##### $$$$$ %%%%% ¢¢¢¢¢ &&&&& ***** (((((( Don't be like this guy and make sure you're all careful editing! *Due to a mishap in the previous newsletter, HH would like to formally apologize for linking users in the newsletter, and causing users to receive dozens of notifications. From now on, only the newsletter editors will be linked (so you can message us if you wanted). Comments or suggestions? This is the second edition of what will hopefully be a long-running newsletter. If you have any suggestions or complaints (such as them being in a different order in the section header), click on the previous links or try the newsletter talk page.