You know how it goes: You watch "Your Local Weather on the 8s" on the Weather Channel and, at the end, it shows the forecast for the next seven days. Five days out, it looks pretty good, but the forecast goes downhill to the point that the day when you thought you would be lying out in the sun, working on your tan, you're instead shoveling six inches of snow.
If I were running things, I'd make the long-range forecast to be as shitty as the forecast models could remotely justify. That way, people would be happy when the weather seemed to improve, not the other way around.
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9 comments:
*sigh*
I wish we had some snow and less sun sometimes. Like when I drink the "local" water (gag) and visit the dermatologist (ouch, liquid nitrogen stings).
Esteemed Comrade E.B.,
If I were running things...
You're here, running this blog, that don't suck, one of the few areas in life folks can control, for now anyways. As always, the ever positive 2 1/2 sheets lad [g].
TWC and the NWS seem to have a new tack I think..."if we don't have a clue, we'll just give ya the current weather, you figger it out from there" ;-)
5AM EST, 13F, an fing skating rink where my car is, all good fun...
exmixer
I can just picture The Weather Channel's autoresponse form letter for complaints regarding the accuracy of their forecasts.
---------
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your lovely comments.
What exactly do you do for a living?
Our job requires us to foretell the goddamn future like fortune tellers, except we wear suits and use blue screens.
Unless your job description happens to include the words "oracle", "shaman", or "soothsayer", please kindly shut the fuck up.
Thanks again and have a nice day (on Tuesday).
TWC
P.S. Wednesday will be as shitty as a port-a-potty at a chili dog festival. Pack an umbrella.
Wicked Penguin,
Wednesday will be as shitty as a port-a-potty at a chili dog festival. Pack an umbrella.
Oh, the penguinity!
1937 NJ joke there, poorly done, sorry, my doctor wants to do equally annoying things, before my fucking Aetna health insurance bumps up to US $926.00/mo, come March 1. Got my 'brella packed, actually, the shit storm already started in that area awhile ago.
Ahhh, I feel better now, no grin I can muster though.
exmixer
Always go with persistence - what it is today, it will be tomorrow. If it isn't, then be surprised. Long range forecasting (beyond 48-72 hours) can be very iffy, due to lack of data (based on location). We don't have weather stations in the ocean, so stuff from the Pacific (for example) is based on satellite data and the odd ship report or the rare aircraft wx report. Midwest weather has gone over a lot of stations, so the information is a little more solid. And mother nature can always be counted on to change her mind vs what is predicted.
We don't have weather stations in the ocean
We once did.
A short history of ocean stations.
E.B. - Thank you for the links.
I didn't get into weather until 1990, and they didn't go into that history at school. There used to be a job in the military titled "Weather Observer". This job is what you did for 2 to 3 years before you were shipped back to school to learn "Forecasting". You learn a lot about the weather by looking at the sky, and reporting your observations of its state and the various readings off the instruments.
Now (as I understand), forecasting is the only course, and the military leaves the weather observations up to the equipment. Not sure if it was an improvement or not, but I think they'd loose the 'feel' of the weather by not paying attention to it on a daily basis. They may just look at the charts and numerical data spat out from the computer - and sometimes its garbage in, garbage out.
Marc, I am well familiar with how iffy the automatic observations can be.
Here is an example. If you click on the photo, you can see the airport where the AWOS was reporting clear skies.
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