Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Weather Predictions Are Ridiculous


I just ran into a maintenance guy at work who is pretty much in love with me and he was complaining about how last weekend he had agreed to take the Saturday shift because they were predicting rain on Saturday and nice weather on Sunday, and obviously Saturday ended up being beautiful and Sunday was gloom city.

This proves once again that predicting the weather is the most ridiculous thing known to mankind. People give me shit all the time for going to psychics, reading my horoscope, judging people based on their zodiac signs, etc. but the same people turn on the tv and watch men predict the future weather by drawing things on maps and using high powered "doppler" radars and other crystal balls and ghostbusting machines like it is the most normal thing in the world to tune in every night to an charlatan who kisses bones of saints and tells you whether it will rain in 3 days. What's even more ridiculous is that every prediction they make is always 100% hedged, like it is always "partially" cloudy with a "chance" of sun and"60% chance" of "scattered" showers, which is basically the equivalent of saying that it will rain when the eagle lands.

Look, I am all for pseudoscience, but when people treat Al Roker and meteorologists as legitimate professionals with actual knowledge of how the future weather will be, it is almost too outrageous for words. If Al Roker is Nostradamus, then I have some questions about the future, mainly, a) will I be getting a secondary rhinoplasty and b) will I be disgustingly rich very soon.


2 comments:

The only frog with his own blog said...

On the news the other day I witnessed something glorious... a totally blown weather call from the weatherman. (predicted rain, next day it was sunny) It was during one of those toss between segments, going from weather to traffic, with the studio ppl all chiming in with inane chatter.. Basically the traffic lady was giving him grief and everyone was laughing at him... Without missing a beat, he just cuts back at her with "how about you tell me what the traffic is going to be like TOMORROW Susan?!?" Thought it was pretty funny and worth sharing... Anywho, thanks for the blogs, I enjoy the humor.

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