Does the fact that the forcast is always wrong annoy you? What's the most reliable report that you know of?

Question

We were supposed to have SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS for the past three days and it has been sunny the whole time, not a drop of rain even once; not even clouds! I can never get a reliable forecast and it really annoys me. I use the weather add-on (forecast fox) from Mozilla, the Weather Channel and the basic cable weather (ch. 2, and 4) that comes on during the news. Not one of them is reliable.

Answer 1

Weather forecasting is more of an art than a science. It can never be PERFECTLY accurate. No one can predict sudden changes in the atmosphere. Also, if you are so annoyed by the false reports, why do you watch them? Turn them off and be surprised. Live spontaneously.

Answer 2

There is a simple answer to this question.

Though meteorologists have many scientific instruments to help them predict the weather, that's just what it is..a prediction.

Weather constantly evolves.  There is nobody except God who can tell you exactly what the weather will do.  I talk with Him daily but the only time I ever discussed the weather with Him is when we were in the path of Katrina.

I'm not being "flip" or "smart-assed"...I simply think that there is nothing on earth that can predict the weather completely accurately.  However, when I do want to check the weather, I always go to weatherbug.com.  They seem to get it the closest in my opinion.

Answer 3

Weather forecasting is an extremely difficult "science".

Actually, today the forecasts are far superior to what has been available in the past. The difficulty lies in the fact that weather and the movement of air is a three dimensional phenomenon. We usually view it as two dimensional. The rising or falling of air masses can significantly alter the movement of weather fronts in a manner that can fool the best of the experts. Those changes can happen rather suddenly.

Additionally, the "news" programs like to get your attention and "sell" you on the idea of watching their forecast, so they like to be spectacular in their reports.

Another aspect is: If there is severe weather and they didn't adequately "warn" you about it, they get in trouble with their viewers. They tend to warn of the most extreme conditions possible.

If I want to see what is happening, I log onto www.weather.com and punch in my local zip code.

Then I click onto the "interactive" weather map. zoom out to see a large area, put the map into "motion", and observe the direction of movement of the weather. If you change the format to include both clouds and radar, it is quite comprehensive, but you need to have high-speed Internet to use it.

Answer 4

My aunt called weather forecasting "not an exact science."  I would call it, as the person above said, more of an art than a science.  It's based on probability; what it did before when there were similar circumstances (wind, humidity, temperature, etc.).  I would be more worried about it the other way.  About two months ago, they weren't calling for severe weather (actually, a very small percentage) - we wound up having tornadoes which did a lot of damage.

I like weather.com's animated radar, but I like weather.gov's information better.