When I went to bed last night, all the weather forecasters were predicting a snowfall of historic proportions. When I got up this morning, we had snow on the ground and it was snowing, but it was only of “historic proportions” because it was the largest snowfall this year. I guess it’s easy to criticize and make fun of weather forecasters but they’re wrong so often it kind of takes all the sport out of it.
They say everybody talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. That’s true — but I’m not sure how you’d do anything about it. Weather forecasters don’t do anything about the weather, but they talk a lot about it — the problem is that the talk is mostly wrong.
I’ve noticed that no matter how the forecast turns out, there’s always another forecaster who “knew it would” but the forecaster who “knew it would happen that way” never told anyone about it beforehand. I’ve also noticed that heavy snow generally ends once a winter storm warning is issued.
I’ve always wondered a few things about the weather that have never been answered to my satisfaction. For instance….
Does a tornado have to be bigger around than whatever its picking up? If our body temperature is normally 98.6 degrees, how come when it’s 98 degrees outside everyone complains because its hot? If you see a heat wave, should you wave back? (I just made that up.) If heat rises, shouldn’t hell be cold? When you see the weather report and its says “partly cloudy” and you see another that says “partly sunny” — what’s the difference?
The problem with weather forecasting is that it’s right just often enough that you can’t completely ignore it but wrong so much that you can’t rely on it. Some years ago I had what turned out to be the best indicator of weather that I’ve ever seen — it was an Old Indian Weather Rock. It basically consisted of three sticks stuck in the ground and tied at a point forming a triangle — from that point a rock was suspended in the middle of the triangle by a leather strap. If the rock was wet, it was raining; if the rock was dry, it wasn’t raining; if the rock was white on top, it was snowing; if the rock was swinging, it was windy; if you couldn’t see the rock, it was foggy; if the rock was gone, it was a tornado. Amazingly enough, the rock was almost never wrong. If I ever find another one, I’m going to get it.
So since our historic snowstorm has ended, here’s the forecast for tonight: Dark. Probably some widely scattered light by morning…..
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