Friday, February 22, 2008

Never Trust a Texas Weatherman - Or the Weather

I have seen the weather reports of snow, ice and other problems all over the country. Did the local forcasters get them all right? If you believe what you see on the national news programs I guess they did. After days of snow one could assume that at least one day the forcast was correct. What did the meteorologist see as he looked out the window or walked outside? Hey there is snow on the ground and clouds in the sky. Maybe I will put that in my five day forcast. Or they go outside and see rain. With the advent of the weather computers used by all the tv stations even the average viewer can watch the weather.

Maybe we tv watchers should take up the weather predicting. At least here in Houston, every time I watch the predictions I end up wondering why did they say that. In the last few weeks I have watched the weekly forcasts go from warm to cold, wet to dry. The trouble is when they say it will rain, it doesn't. When they say it will be cold, I end up turning on the air conditioner. Last night they all said beware of a strong line of thunderstorms. Nothing happened. This morning storms will be crossing the viewing area. They even had the time nailed down when they would show up. They just forgot something. Predicting the weather is a science, just not an exact science. Don't look now, those thunderstorms took a detour.

I grew up watching the weather. I had my own little weather station and instruments in my backyard. I think I got it as a present, one of those science project type of things. I even briefly toyed with the idea of being a weathercaster someday. When I learned how much math was involved I changed my mind. Math and I did not get along.

But these days I think I will stick to watching the tv guys and ask my dogs. They dogs seem to have a better idea of when it will be stormy. When it is cloudy outside and I can't get them to move out of the chair, I know it is going to rain. When they curl up under their blanket, it will be cold.

Lately the local weather people have warned us about all sorts of impending weather problems. This system is heading our way, or that won't come here. I think the weather likes to toy with us. Just as soon as the experts say something is going to happen - it doesn't. I was waiting for the rain today. Now the sun is shining. Oh well, there is a saying here in Texas, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute, it will change." So tomorrow it is supposed to be 74 and sunny. No rain, right?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, to be a meteorologist in Hawaii. Warm, sunny, temperature in the low 80's, with a brief rain shower early this afternoon .... daily.

Dr.John said...

Your lucky. We have gotten every bit of snow and cold weather they predicted. I wanted them to be wrong.

dmarks said...

I've spent... let me see... 4 days in Texas when I was out of doors. It wasn't that bad.