Weather Woes

I know I go on about the fast paced technology driven age we live in a bit. I remember when computers first started to come into wide use. The manufacturers used to tout the paperless office! I don't know about you, but it seems like there is more paper now than there ever was. Technology has done allot of things for us, instant music, MRI machines, heat and lights and lots of other things. The one thing I wish technology would do for us is to produce better forecasts for the weather.

You would think that in a country that is affected by the weather so much, we would be putting more money into getting the forecast right. We can't complain too much I guess. For the most part I know that if I want to go somewhere in a couple of days I can pretty much count on the weather. But at times I wonder if weather forecasters have a big chart on the wall and wherever their dart hits the wall ends up being the weather outlook.

I was at the grocery store yesterday and every second person I knew was talking about the 'big storm' that was coming. When I asked when it was due in, because I hadn't heard about it, they said 'oh, next week." Next Week? Where are these people getting their weather from? Psychics or crystal balls?

Did you know that forecasts are only accurate for the first 24 to 48 hours? That's right. Anything beyond the day after tomorrow is basically useless. If you look at a weather forecast today, for three days from now, you have less than a 50% chance of seeing that forecasted weather on that day. Most people can do better than that by guessing based on a thermometer, a barometer and a weather almanac. When it comes to weather in Canada—just worry about tomorrow, after that anything is possible.