Do you believe weather forecasts?

I don't watch to closely. I'd have better luck putting all the possible weather on a dart board and throwing a dart at it and then planning accordingly. Like everything it's a guessing game. Watch to the North, South, East and West. See what they HAD for weather and you might have an idea how to dress. I think weather people are really over paid for the work they do. A doctor could not make that many mistakes and still have a job!

Long term, yes.

Short term, as there are no mountains here in Minnesota that would impact the weather, this is a very difficult thing to predict, the weather.

Paul Douglas is A WEATHER GOD! You cannot impune him in any way shape or form!!!


Of course there's a 70% chance I might be wrong... :0

"I'd have better luck putting all the possible weather on a dart board and throwing a dart at it and then planning accordingly." Sara, would you put a Doppler Radar image on the dart board or just have temperatures and/or icons depicting conditions?

Richard, what do you mean by long term? Like knowing we'll face higher temperatures overall or?

So you have your own points of reference playing the odds Melinda? When you say your local meteorologists are "usually" right, what percentage would you give them?

Frick, is an atmospheric scientist born a god or are they made as such? *grin* So safe to assume you don't exactly trust the forecast?

Weather forecasts have been wrong a lot more than they've been right so they don't have the best record but we STILL check the forecasts... especially in the winter time. We depend on the local radio weather stations more than the TV stations, too.

I agree with Melinda, it has to be a higher percentage before we'd believe any inclement weather forcasted for our area is right on the money. It has to be at least 60% before we'd start to worry. We've used this unwritten rule for a long time... we are in the snow removal business and must be ready when the weather changes for the worse. There's no sense in worrying if the chances are too low.

Not really.

I'm tired of the "hype" weather is given on a daily basis by the local TV stations. If there is an event I need to plan for, I'll tune in, but only for a general outlook for that day. I don't expect them to be perfect, its the weather. They just have more expensive machines to help them possibly get it wrong.

I'm tired of weather hype. OMG. We get two inches of snow and there are reporters on highway overpasses and shutting down schools. This winter, there was about 4-5" of snow one afternoon and the hockey game between Washburn High School (50th and Nicolet in south Minneapolis) versus Richfield High School(the rink is a block or so east of 66th Street and Portland ave) About a mile or two! AND THEY CANCEL THE GAME DUE TO WEATHER!

I have this same bitch about baseball stats as I do the weather. Computers have given us too, too many ways to crunch the numbers to feed our weather hype. "It's the warmest April since 1927" or pull some other year out of your arse.

I've stopped yelling at the TV screen or radio. "IF IT HASN"T BEEN THAT HOT SINCE 1928 THEN WHY ARE SUV"S CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING!"

And they wonder why people aren't watching the 10 oclock news?

Melinda (you're not in trouble *grin*) do you find yourself turning to the correct-80%-of-the-time meteorologist more often? Does it draw to you the station/paper?

Ohhhhhhhh Pearl 2, how often do you check in on the weather? I can only imagine how challenging it is to have a business directly affected by the weather.

Gotta side with you on the hype, Gary. Sometimes I refer to the Weather channel's promos as the "When Weather ATTACKS!" show. Really. A couple inches of snow should mean that people allow themselves extra time to get to that hockey game, but it isn't immediately running a risk to your life.

I think it is the best job to have. You get paid "weather" (whether) you are right or wrong. What a life, huh?

Well, yeah JF! There's cool equipment, you get to be a scientist, there's the adrenalin rush of reporting updates during epic storms... and people do forgive you for being wrong. A very good job.

Long term Julia, would be a period of say eleven or so years, as that's what the solar cycle for sun spots is.

Even the southern oscillation isn't predictable (La Nina and El Nino). This has a major impact on the jet stream and the tropical storms in the oceans.

Whoa Richard when you said long term you meant it! Do you see everything else as a variable then?

Well, yeah Julia.

Without any mountains to hold the weather in we're at the mercy of the wind and it'll just blow the weather wherever it goes. And another interesting thing is that when the ground is dry the clouds just evaporate in thin air.

I also have this strange feeling that the cold air from up north dissipates further down south now with the jet stream as the Earth warms up and is driving the Jet streams down south more than before, well I'd speculate that to be in the last 5 or so years.

It was 35 here two days ago as the North wind was blowing, 85 today as the South wind is blowing and about 5 days ago it was 89.5 as the South wind blew. With all this wind blowing why in the world isn't there any rain?