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Meteorologists should get paid on commission

IMHO, the only useful weather forecast is looking out the window.

It is irrelevant what the weather is *supposed* to be (forecasts are often wrong). All that matters is what it IS.
Well, yeah, but it's nice to have some kind of expectation so you can attempt to plan outdoor activities.

That's easy to do. Want to have a picnic? Look outside. If rain, no picnic. If no rain, have picnic. :techman:
 
IMHO, the only useful weather forecast is looking out the window.

It is irrelevant what the weather is *supposed* to be (forecasts are often wrong). All that matters is what it IS.
Well, yeah, but it's nice to have some kind of expectation so you can attempt to plan outdoor activities.

That's easy to do. Want to have a picnic? Look outside. If rain, no picnic. If no rain, have picnic. :techman:

Yeah, but it's nice to know if the weather tomorrow will line up well with your plans. And, as others have said, the 24-hour predictions are generally reasonably accurate.
 
IMHO, the only useful weather forecast is looking out the window.

It is irrelevant what the weather is *supposed* to be (forecasts are often wrong). All that matters is what it IS.
Well, yeah, but it's nice to have some kind of expectation so you can attempt to plan outdoor activities.

That's easy to do. Want to have a picnic? Look outside. If rain, no picnic. If no rain, have picnic. :techman:

...plan outdoor activities for days later in the week. As a baseball fan, I would think you would be somewhat aware of this concept.
 
My umbrella is the ultimate predictor of weather. Whenever I take it with me, I can guarantee that I will never use it as the weather will be dry. When I'm without it, it always rains.
 
IMHO, the only useful weather forecast is looking out the window.

It is irrelevant what the weather is *supposed* to be (forecasts are often wrong). All that matters is what it IS.

The forecast up to 1 day in advance is typically fairly accurate. The accuracy degrades after that.

Aviation forecasts (TAFs, FAs, prog charts, etc) rarely bother trying to predict what's going to happen more than 48 hours out.


The tornadoes we endured a couple of weeks ago here, in Central Oklahoma, were literally predicted to the half-hour almost 8 days in advance.
 
IMHO, the only useful weather forecast is looking out the window.

It is irrelevant what the weather is *supposed* to be (forecasts are often wrong). All that matters is what it IS.

The forecast up to 1 day in advance is typically fairly accurate. The accuracy degrades after that.

Aviation forecasts (TAFs, FAs, prog charts, etc) rarely bother trying to predict what's going to happen more than 48 hours out.


The tornadoes we endured a couple of weeks ago here, in Central Oklahoma, were literally predicted to the half-hour almost 8 days in advance.

Good for the weathermen. Sometimes weather behaves more predictably than others. Also, some types of weather are more predictable than others.
 
According to the weather app on my computer, it's raining right now.

*looks out the window*

The sun is shining, and there isn't a cloud in the sky.
 
According to the weather app on my computer, it's raining right now.

*looks out the window*

The sun is shining, and there isn't a cloud in the sky.

To be fair, your forecast is for the generalized local area. The source of the weather station for your area could be receiving rainshowers.
 
IMHO, the only useful weather forecast is looking out the window.

It is irrelevant what the weather is *supposed* to be (forecasts are often wrong). All that matters is what it IS.
Well, yeah, but it's nice to have some kind of expectation so you can attempt to plan outdoor activities.

That's easy to do. Want to have a picnic? Look outside. If rain, no picnic. If no rain, have picnic. :techman:

Doesn't work that way here. Tasmania is notorious for being able to get 'all four seasons in one day".

If I am only going out for a couple of hours I will look at the mountain. It is a good indicator of whether I need to wear a coat or not. I can tell by how low the snow is how cold it is outside, if I can't see the mountain there is a good chance it will rain within the next couple of hours.
 
According to the weather app on my computer, it's raining right now.

*looks out the window*

The sun is shining, and there isn't a cloud in the sky.

To be fair, your forecast is for the generalized local area. The source of the weather station for your area could be receiving rainshowers.

Indeed. The vast majority of weather stations are located at airports, so depending on where the nearest airport is, you could be receiving weather information from 10 or 15 kilometres away; certainly enough to account for microclimatic differences.
 
IMHO, the only useful weather forecast is looking out the window.

It is irrelevant what the weather is *supposed* to be (forecasts are often wrong). All that matters is what it IS.

Uh, no. If I'm going to meet someone in the city I like to know what the weather will be. If it's supposed to snow then odds are I'll make other plans.
 
The forecast up to 1 day in advance is typically fairly accurate. The accuracy degrades after that.

Aviation forecasts (TAFs, FAs, prog charts, etc) rarely bother trying to predict what's going to happen more than 48 hours out.


The tornadoes we endured a couple of weeks ago here, in Central Oklahoma, were literally predicted to the half-hour almost 8 days in advance.

Good for the weathermen. Sometimes weather behaves more predictably than others. Also, some types of weather are more predictable than others.

To be fair, Oklahoma is literally a weather laboratory. After all, the National Weather Service had the meteorological center built on the OU campus :lol: The weather-guessers here have decades of experience as well as decades of data used to build algorithms that analyze probable weather patterns and conditions. The data from every storm that has passed is processed, analyzed, and used with all past data in order to aid in future forecasting.


And to think that back in the 1940's, the Government didn't want TV stations issuing tornado warnings for fear of "needlessly alarming the public" and threatened local TV stations with fines and jail terms. The weathermen won out, saved lives, and made the Government look stupid (which isn't too difficult to do anyway).
 
Indeed. The vast majority of weather stations are located at airports, so depending on where the nearest airport is, you could be receiving weather information from 10 or 15 kilometres away; certainly enough to account for microclimatic differences.

One day, my neighbour and I were sitting on the steps of her home when it started to rain quite heavily. We rushed into my neighbour's back yard to get her dry washing off the line only to find that it wasn't raining in her backyard at all. In this case about 10 meters made a difference.
 
According to the weather app on my computer, it's raining right now.

*looks out the window*

The sun is shining, and there isn't a cloud in the sky.

To be fair, your forecast is for the generalized local area. The source of the weather station for your area could be receiving rainshowers.

Indeed. The vast majority of weather stations are located at airports, so depending on where the nearest airport is, you could be receiving weather information from 10 or 15 kilometres away; certainly enough to account for microclimatic differences.

The airport is less than 5 miles away. I'd be able to tell if it was storming.
 
i dont know. sometimes i can hear the thunder in the distance but sometimes not.
sometimes all you get is the breeze caused by a nearby storm.
 
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