I’ve always had mixed feelings about the weatherman. They all seem like nice guys and gals, but they also seem at least a little bit too happy when the weather turns bad. They enjoy our misery a bit much methinks.
We happened to be in southwest Florida on Sunday, Jan. 16, when about a half-dozen tornadoes swept through, a relatively rare occurrence in them parts. At least one was within five or six miles of us — close enough. Our phones were going nuts and the weather gal on the local station was quite excited. To be fair, she was not exuberant, but it was clear that these moments are why these people got into the business, not unlike a journalist covering a a major story.
Two weeks later, a cold snap was coming through, bringing near or even below-freezing temps to the area. You would think armageddon was coming. The mood was decidedly different — you could almost see a smile at the corners.
We left Florida last Saturday morning bright and early, with the temperature only a few degrees above the magic mark; stayed overnight just north of Atlanta where the overnight low was 21. We got reacclimated to Indiana weather all too easily (Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Not sure.), arriving home Sunday evening only to find our friendly Fort Wayne weather people in their element —squarely in the spotlight warning of the coming storm.
I just can’t seem to share their enthusiasm.
Perhaps we all wonder about the accuracy of this science they call meteorology. Their track record is not all that great on specifics, but then I’ve often wondered — with all the variables in the atmosphere and how easily the winds of change can change — how can they even come close to predicting what the weather will be like even just one day out.
Hence, skepticism reigns in this strange mind of mine when it comes to specific forecasts of a snowmegeddon. And it doesn’t help when our local TV media people play it all to the hilt, feeling obliged to scare us all into emptying the grocery shelves and preparing for the end of the world as we know it.
Accuracy is one of the casualties. In the Wednesday evening telecast, the anchor teased an upcoming story by saying “…and next up, private (snow removal) contractors are making money hand over fist.” How she knows what their profit margins are will remain a mystery as the actual story only said they were (surprise) getting many calls requesting their services.
And new technology now allows the weather crews to give us live reports from the streets. Thus, one crew was cruising down a mildly snow-covered Coliseum Boulevard, obviously doing about 30 or 40 mph, while telling us all to “slow down!”
Thursday morning’s telecasts gave us the “breaking news” — with a live report right outside their studios — that it is cold and it’s snowing. “Thanks for the update,” I mumbled out loud.
The end result: Of the predicted 11-18 inches, our local total of snowfall was just 5.8 inches, but according to our official local National Weather Service observer Neil Ainslie, that would have been 11 or 12 inches if not for the later-than-expected changeover from rain to snow Wednesday afternoon.
So, overall, who would complain? Except maybe about those perky weather people. They just seem too happy about it all.
miller@news-banner.com
