Very interesting show on WeatherBrains this week… check it out if you have time on iTunes, or listen using the player here on the blog on the upper left.
A meteorologist from Washington joins us, and he makes the point that the web has really fouled up weather forecasts, and I think he is really onto something. Weather on the web is a commodity; there are millions of web sites out there where you can enter your zip code, and get a forecast.
The problem? Those forecasts are all automated; the forecast comes right from computer models often with no human touch at all. This leads to some really bad forecasts, sometimes ones that even don’t make good sense. And, most people don’t understand that forecasts come from different sources. Sometimes people will ask me what “they say” the weather will do today. Have no idea who “they” is, but I will be glad to share the forecast we have prepared.
And, with these bad automated forecasts, somehow the blame comes around to us when they are wrong.
If you are reading this blog, you know we are not about automated forecasts here; we personally prepare all of our forecasts, and go to great lengths for extra discussion here on the blog along with the Weather Xtreme videos that explain our forecast.
All forecasts are not the same. Thanks to Tony Pann from WUSA-TV for being our guest and bringing up this interesting topic… and thanks to you for reading the blog and not using the “enter your zip code” automated forecasts!
