Plan to redraw U.S. States...

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Just scrap the current 50 states and the various territories and form 122 new states from those. That way, each weather forecast office of the NWS would have jurisdiction over exactly one state each . Those new states would have their capitals where the WFOs are currently located. State abbreviations would switch to three letters, and would be just the current office codes.

So, any 122 star flag designs? Any proposals to connect the new state capitals not served by the IHS? (I even found 3 states in the lower 116 that don't have any interstates at all!)

[hotdogPi]

So, any 122 star flag designs?

Put a 5x10 grid inside a 6x12 grid, in a way similar to the current 4x5 grid inside a 5x6 grid (if you look at it a certain way).

[pianocello]

Instead of connecting the capitals to the IHS, I think it would be easier to just move some of the capitals around. Instead of Lincoln, IL, the capital of ILX would be Springfield, LOT's capital would be Chicago instead of Romeoville, BOU's capital would be Denver instead of Boulder, and IWX's capital would be Fort Wayne or South Bend instead of Syracuse, to name a few.

But then there are the three of the new states that aren't connected. Diving into fictional territory, you could extend I-41 to Marquette by upgrading US-41 to the Michigan state line and drawing a line due north from Menominee. I couldn't tell where the other two Interstate-less states were.

[Henry]

What is the link to this plan?

[NWI_Irish96]

Just scrap the current 50 states and the various territories and form 122 new states from those. That way, each weather forecast office of the NWS would have jurisdiction over exactly one state each . Those new states would have their capitals where the WFOs are currently located. State abbreviations would switch to three letters, and would be just the current office codes.

So, any 122 star flag designs? Any proposals to connect the new state capitals not served by the IHS? (I even found 3 states in the lower 116 that don't have any interstates at all!)

Something maybe a bit more realistic than this, but related, I would like to see the NWS boundaries match up better with TV media market boundaries.  Lawrence/Jackson/Jennings counties in Indiana get their local TV stations from Louisville but are covered by the Indianapolis NWS office.  That has always bothered me. 

[Pink Jazz]

Something maybe a bit more realistic than this, but related, I would like to see the NWS boundaries match up better with TV media market boundaries.  Lawrence/Jackson/Jennings counties in Indiana get their local TV stations from Louisville but are covered by the Indianapolis NWS office.  That has always bothered me.

This might be a bit problematic, since very rarely does Nielsen split counties into two or more different media markets.  For example, all of Pinal County, Arizona is in the Phoenix DMA, but from Eloy east and south it is under the jurisdiction of the Tucson NWS office.  I think that Nielsen needs to split more counties than it does now.  I don't think someone in Pinal County across the Pima County line would want their forecasts and advisories to be issued from Phoenix if Tucson is much closer.

[jeffandnicole]

So, any 122 star flag designs?

Put a 5x10 grid inside a 6x12 grid, in a way similar to the current 4x5 grid inside a 5x6 grid (if you look at it a certain way).

At that point, you abandon the current look of the flag.  Keep Red, White & Blue in there, but you'll have to come up with another design besides stars & stripes.

[DTComposer]

My initial thought is this isn't a great idea since we'd have even greater population discrepancies between states than we do now: currently Wyoming is about 1.5% of California's population, and LKN (Elko, best guess as to the least populous NWS district) is about 0.5% of OKX (New York, best guess as to the most populous NWS district).

So in order not to have crazy population-per-seat discrepancies in the House of Representatives, we'd have to expand to something on the order of 3,000 members.

[NE2]

Repub-a-dub-dub dream plan.

[iBallasticwolf2]

What is the link to this plan?

I thought I was the only one wondering that question.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Here is a map of the Lower 116. As I pointed out, there would be 3 states that currently don't have any interstates (EKA, KEY, and MQT, though it would be silly to make a state only with Florida keys, as it would dissapear under the sea in the next centuries), and I actually thought there would be more (GGW has I-94, DDC has I-70). As pianocello pointed out, some proposed capitals are a bit silly choices and better move them.

Repub-a-dub-dub dream plan.

I'm actually on the left wing (Ironically represented by the red color in Europe). I did this proposal just for amusement.

[vtk]

So, any 122 star flag designs?

Put a 5x10 grid inside a 6x12 grid, in a way similar to the current 4x5 grid inside a 5x6 grid (if you look at it a certain way).

If the grids have equal star pitch horizontally and vertically, then the columns of the 10 by 5 grid would fall within the central 10 columns of the 12 by 6 grid. The result would effectively be a loose column of 6 stars, followed by 10 tight columns of 11 stars each, followed by another loose column of 6. Alternatively, you could break each grid in half, and interlace the respective halves. So then you would have in each half, a 5 by 5 grid inside a 6 by 6 grid. Overall it would look a lot like our current arrangement, but with a seam down the middle.

[Pete from Boston]

](Ironically represented by the red color in Europe)

Here too, other than in a context laid out by some TV stations  on election night and overzealously run with from there.  "Red scare," "Red menace," and "Better dead than Red" are well-established phrases over here.

[Brandon]

](Ironically represented by the red color in Europe)

Here too, other than in a context laid out by some TV stations  on election night and overzealously run with from there.  "Red scare," "Red menace," and "Better dead than Red" are well-established phrases over here.

It's only been since the 2000 elections that red=Republican and blue=Democrat.  Prior to this, the networks usually alternated the colors based on who the challenger was (red) and the incumbent (blue).

[Big John]

](Ironically represented by the red color in Europe)

Here too, other than in a context laid out by some TV stations  on election night and overzealously run with from there.  "Red scare," "Red menace," and "Better dead than Red" are well-established phrases over here.

It's only been since the 2000 elections that red=Republican and blue=Democrat.  Prior to this, the networks usually alternated the colors based on who the challenger was (red) and the incumbent (blue).

Before that:  1992 coverage when George H W Bush was the incumbent., Bush=Red, Clinton=Blue, Perot=White

Though 1980 had Reagan as blue vs the incumbent Carter

[vtk]

So, any 122 star flag designs?

Put a 5x10 grid inside a 6x12 grid, in a way similar to the current 4x5 grid inside a 5x6 grid (if you look at it a certain way).

If the grids have equal star pitch horizontally and vertically, then the columns of the 10 by 5 grid would fall within the central 10 columns of the 12 by 6 grid. The result would effectively be a loose column of 6 stars, followed by 10 tight columns of 11 stars each, followed by another loose column of 6. Alternatively, you could break each grid in half, and interlace the respective halves. So then you would have in each half, a 5 by 5 grid inside a 6 by 6 grid. Overall it would look a lot like our current arrangement, but with a seam down the middle.

Turns out that seam in the middle was ugly. So I went with a 9×6 grid interlaced within a 10×7 grid, which would be 124 stars, and then I took out a couple of stars from the middle and redistributed the remaining stars in their diagonals:

[GaryV]

Here is a map of the Lower 116. As I pointed out, there would be 3 states that currently don't have any interstates (EKA, KEY, and MQT, though it would be silly to make a state only with Florida keys, as it would dissapear under the sea in the next centuries), and I actually thought there would be more (GGW has I-94, DDC has I-70). As pianocello pointed out, some proposed capitals are a bit silly choices and better move them.

Which of those "states" would have the lowest population?  MQT, CAR, GGW, LKN, ???

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I'd place my bet on AJK, although I need to see a map with the three Alaskan 'states' (i.e. the areas the Alaskan WFOs cover). I wouldn't discard any of the others for now.

[DTComposer]

Which of those "states" would have the lowest population?  MQT, CAR, GGW, LKN, ???

GGW: ~54K
LKN: ~98K
MQT: ~262K
CAR: ~357K

(slightly estimated, since LKN and CAR have partial counties)

[davewiecking]

It's only been since the 2000 elections that red=Republican and blue=Democrat.  Prior to this, the networks usually alternated the colors based on who the challenger was (red) and the incumbent (blue).

Before that:1992 coverage when George H W Bush was the incumbent., Bush=Red, Clinton=Blue, Perot=White

Though 1980 had Reagan as blue vs the incumbent Carter

There was no "standard" back in the 70's. The 3 major networks each did what they wanted. Nancy Reagan wore a bright red dress to the 1981 Inaugural and said she was moved by having watched the map turn red as her husband defeated (er, crushed) Jimmy Carter. I assumed she was watching CBS, because when I read that several decades ago, I though "I watched election night mostly on NBC and their map was turning blue"...
But I digress. Bigtime...

[jp the roadgeek]

3 different sections for CT?!?  I can see ceding Fairfield County to NY, but having 7 mile I-691 cross the state line 3 times in a 4 mile stretch is a little zany.

[Zeffy]

I just have to ask... why would this ever be a thing? The only thing I like is my half of New Jersey associates with Philadelphia now instead of New York.

[SectorZ]

What happens when they move certain counties from one WFO to another? For example, 12/14, Hillsborough and Cheshire Counties in NH went from the Taunton MA office to the Gray ME office.