The summer is almost here and with it come traveling, BBQ parties, and other fun stuff. I always get anxious when I try to plan things during the summer time and get all kinds of predictions from different weather forecasters. Do you have a preferred forecaster yourself? Is there one you consider more reliable than the rest?
The summer is almost here and with it come traveling, BBQ parties, and other fun stuff. I always get anxious when I try to plan things during the summer time and get all kinds of predictions from different weather forecasters. Do you have a preferred forecaster yourself? Is there one you consider more reliable than the rest?
I usually use Weather.com; they’ve generally seemed more accurate to me than other places. Though when it comes to near-term events, I don’t think there’s much better than animating a good weather radar site and attempting a rough extrapolation visually.
Yeah, I already have a couple of those on my iPhone. Now I can go crazy 24/7. I feel these days one spends more energy selecting the right information compared with the past when we spent most of our time trying to get whatever information we could find. In the end, though, things narrow down for me pretty quickly: I remember only a few years ago I used to follow more than a dozen of blogs and websites and I was always in search for new ones. Now I am down to six and I don’t really bother much anymore to look for additional sources.
Well depending on the climate where you live, you can be an accurate forecaster by yourself.
As far as professional meteorologists go, my local news stations are quite good.
You may be right about local being better. When i was about 12 yrs old I made a home weather station including a barometer, hygrometer, thermometer and wind speed meter from household items using instructions from a library book. It took me a couple days to build it and I caught hell for using stuff my mom and dad weren’t finished with but it wasn’t half bad. I set it up in the yard and made my first forecast. My prediction…a snow storm was coming. The TV weatherman said it would just be cloudy and cold. This was the pre-satellite era but I figured the guy on TV knew a lot more than me and I probably needed a little more practice working with the equipment so left it in the yard overnight and went to bed. The next morning we woke up to 18 inches of snow and my fragile homemade equipment was destroyed by a small avalanche that fell from the roof. That was the end of my weather forecasting career, but how many weatherman have 100% accuracy rate.
I live near State College, Pa, the home of Accuweather. I’ve known a few people who have worked there, (the owner is said to be a real S.O.B.). They tell me that basically all the commercial forecasters do is take government data, dress it up, i. e. sensationalize it, add advertising and then take something they got for free and sell it. Why not go right to the source, http://forecast.weather.gov/, you’re already paying for it and they don’t sensationalize the weather or subject you to commercials. You can get very specific forecasts and weather warnings.
A note, Joel Myers tried to get a bill passed that would restrict the government to only giving data to commercial outlets. Citizens would have been forced to watch advertising to get access to information they already paid for with taxes. Hurray for Capitalism… or, might that be corporate welfare?
Jeciron, that is the reason I deleted Accuweather from my bookmarks and refuse to visit the site. I’d rather give Weather Underground $5/yr than visit Accuweather free.
Doug, I hadn’t seen WeatherSpark either. Cool site, but they state Georgetown, TX, rarely sees days hotter than 100 degrees F. Oh well, it is in beta release.
Yeah, I already have a couple of those on my iPhone. Now I can go crazy 24/7. I feel these days one spends more energy selecting the right information compared with the past when we spent most of our time trying to get whatever information we could find. In the end, though, things narrow down for me pretty quickly: I remember only a few years ago I used to follow more than a dozen of blogs and websites and I was always in search for new ones. Now I am down to six and I don’t really bother much anymore to look for additional sources.
George, you would love living in an area (like mine) where the weather and temperature changes every few miles! The temperature at my house can be 10 degrees colder or warmer than at the store 3 blocks away. If you look at the Bay Area weather reports, they give the temperature for every city, and sometimes several for one city because of our micro-climates. And even then, it may not cover where you are! Right now, one weather app reports a temperature of 73F in my city,and another reads 67F while my thermometer (in a shaded area away from buildings as directed) reads 83F. I am sure that somewhere in my city the temps are 67F and 73F, just not where I live!
I feel these days one spends more energy selecting the right information compared with the past when we spent most of our time trying to get whatever information we could find. In the end, though, things narrow down for me pretty quickly: I remember only a few years ago I used to follow more than a dozen of blogs and websites and I was always in search for new ones. Now I am down to six and I don’t really bother much anymore to look for additional sources.
