NationStates Jolt Archive

Is it just me, or does it seem like the weathermen just spin a wheel of weather(think wheel of fortune) to choose what our three day forecast is? Just last week, the weather people said that on Tuesday we would have a 20% chance of rain and on Thursday we would have an 80% chance of rain. Both days were normal South Florida cursingly beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky. Then, today, when it was supposed to be partly cloudy without any rain until tonight when it would clear up, it starts raining this morning around 7:45 and cleared up into a hot bright blue day around 10:30.

It's a conspiracy to boost the umbrella industry.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the weathermen just spin a wheel of weather(think wheel of fortune) to choose what our three day forecast is? Just last week, the weather people said that on Tuesday we would have a 20% chance of rain and on Thursday we would have an 80% chance of rain. Both days were normal South Florida cursingly beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky. Then, today, when it was supposed to be partly cloudy without any rain until tonight when it would clear up, it starts raining this morning around 7:45 and cleared up into a hot bright blue day around 10:30.

Have you noticed they've started telling you what the weather WAS as well?

THATS NOT YOUR JOB, GODDAMIT.

They really don't use all that high tech equipment to tell the weather, any fool can use a bluescreen with pretty colors and a map of the US.
What they really do is forecast by looking the window, when throwing darts on a board with pics of sun and clouds grows weary.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the weathermen just spin a wheel of weather(think wheel of fortune) to choose what our three day forecast is? Just last week, the weather people said that on Tuesday we would have a 20% chance of rain and on Thursday we would have an 80% chance of rain. Both days were normal South Florida cursingly beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky. Then, today, when it was supposed to be partly cloudy without any rain until tonight when it would clear up, it starts raining this morning around 7:45 and cleared up into a hot bright blue day around 10:30.
you only get a 3 day forcast? they do a week here....

They really don't use all that high tech equipment to tell the weather, any fool can use a bluescreen with pretty colors and a map of the US.
What they really do is forecast by looking the window, when throwing darts on a board with pics of sun and clouds grows weary.
Close, I'm still gonna go with the wheel though. It's more fun. Unless... maybe if the pictures weren't pictures at all, but people dressed in costumes of suns and clouds. When one gets hit, they have to go stand in front of the reciprocal square root of their age on a graphed map.
Oh, and they do a week forecast too, but you would expect that they could read the weather atleast three days into the future. A week is just blindfolded dart throwing.

Lot of the newer and younger weather forcasters just read a computer and tell you what it says. A trained monkey can do that. A real weatherman will tell you what he thinks will happen, and if he knows what the hell he's doing he'll be right more often than he's wrong.

Oh, well, South Florida. That explains it.

:D

Close, I'm still gonna go with the wheel though. It's more fun. Unless... maybe if the pictures weren't pictures at all, but people dressed in costumes of suns and clouds. When one gets hit, they have to go stand in front of the reciprocal square root of their age on a graphed map.

A good conspiracy thoery, but you must not forget that most people in the weather service cannot read or write let alone understand numbers, everything they say on television is lip-synched and re broadcasted.

Oh, well, South Florida. That explains it.

:D
Tell me about it. The only thing the weathermen can tell you accurately here is what is happening right now, and even then not always.

On the radio this morning, one of the announcers was giving the traffic report and he was talking about how there were tons of accidents because of the rain. He then joked, "People must've forgotten that rain makes roads slick and dangerous to drive on." Seriously, it has been dry for the last three months. It really sucks to see everything looking like it's up north in winter i.e. dead or dying.

Do we need the weather men anyway? I say abolish them, and everyone just tell weather the old fashioned way, by draggin your ass outside and lookin up to the sky, its no more accurate than the filth those weathermen spit at you on television.

That's how it is here in Ohio, too. The weatherman says one thing, while we really end up with something else, usually the opposite of what he had predicted... Crazy I tell you! My friend says that the sky is bipolar here. =P

Maybe God is just messing with our heads?

So those puny humans think they can predict the weather eh? Well I'll show them!

Weather control devices.

... So those puny humans think they can predict the weather eh? Well I'll show them!
ROFL :D

Weather does not exist? I suppose it's the next step after the claim "Global Warming does not exist".

The predictability of weather varies a lot from place to place.

On Canada's west coast, the weather is easily predicted. The temperature never changes very quickly, it moves within well-known seasonal ranges, and the precipitation is largely seasonal.

800 miles inland across the mountains, and the weather is effectively random. Forecasters can't reliably tell you what the weather will do in 2 hours, let alone tomorrow.

Are all of you forgetting chaos theory? The weather is a perfect example of that. It is difficult to forcast because it is inherently unpredictable. It's only recently we've been doing it with any decent accuracy, and even THEN we're right only ~50% of the time. Think about that before bitching at meterologists.

Are all of you forgetting chaos theory? The weather is a perfect example of that. It is difficult to forcast because it is inherently unpredictable. It's only recently we've been doing it with any decent accuracy, and even THEN we're right only ~50% of the time. Think about that before bitching at meterologists.

It'd takes at least a week for the butterfly effect to become a factor.

P.S. Well...Technically, it depends on how much the forecasting equipment accounts for, but it's not about to make a serious effect in three days.

Also, as for the first problem, i see 20% and 80%....that makes a 16% chance that both days would have no rain. 1 in 6, rather reasonable.

It'd takes at least a week for the butterfly effect to become a factor.

P.S. Well...Technically, it depends on how much the forecasting equipment accounts for, but it's not about to make a serious effect in three days.

Also, as for the first problem, i see 20% and 80%....that makes a 16% chance that both days would have no rain. 1 in 6, rather reasonable.
I thought the butterfly effect was only one part of how chaos affects the weather. =/

I thought the butterfly effect was only one part of how chaos affects the weather. =/

Well, you were refering to the butterfly effect, as that's what makes forecasting hard, but the weather system in general is a good example for the chaos theory.

Well, you were refering to the butterfly effect, as that's what makes forecasting hard, but the weather system in general is a good example for the chaos theory.
Oh. Didn't understand it as well as I thought I did. What a shock...

They don't just pull those percentages out of their assses, a good weather man looks at the conditions, and then looks at how conditions like that have turned out. If 4 out of 5 times, it rained, then he gives an 80% chance of rain. It gets more and more complicated the more factors you look at, like where the jet stream might be and how it might move, and how various fronts are moving.

Oh. Didn't understand it as well as I thought I did. What a shock...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory

Wiki, it cures what ails ya. (And the external links section for all you Wikinazis.)

The scary thing is, if a butterfly can affect the weather, what happens after my trips to Taco Bell? :eek:

The scary thing is, if a butterfly can affect the weather, what happens after my trips to Taco Bell? :eek:

Well...You remember Katrina?

ROFL :D

lol yea, I have my moments.

They can't always be right...and you can only make educated guesses with weather, not accurate predictions.