NWS cries "Wuffy!" again

[altivo]

So they started on Sunday beating their drums about this terrible snowstorm that would surely paralyze the area. The predicted snowfall kept creeping upward with each revision of the bulletins until they got to 15+ inches in a 24 hour period. Of course, we got nothing of the sort. If it gets up to five inches by tomorrow morning, I'll be amazed.

All day today they've been telling us that it was still going to get to 12 inches, just wait and see. Their time is almost up. The edge of the storm is visible on the radar and we have perhaps four inches on the ground.

It did in fact snow continuously all that time, but the snow was just too fine and light to amount to the ridiculous accumulation rates they were predicting. As I've said many times in recent years, the National Weather Service was actually more accurate when it was the US Weather Bureau and didn't have computer models. Those computer models are an utter flop, and the kids who run them don't have the good sense to look out a window and see whether it really is raining when the computer says it is. About half the time, the sun is shining instead. ;p

Comments

[merik.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* Sounds like the forecasters here. In the last 12 hours we've gone from Winter Storm Watch and the possibility of heavy snow and high wind on Wednesday, to next to no snow at all on Wednesday, to the latest consultation of the forecasting ouija board, which resulted in a Winter Weather Advisory with light snow starting tonight (which it is doing outside right now) and continuing throughout the day and into the evening on Wednesday.

My tried and true method for getting a short-term weather forecast I can trust? Look out the window...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Last week they fluttered back and forth about the snow. This time they were very definite with the "Look out, you're all going to die!" kind of warnings. It's getting so they do that so often that people just ignore them, which isn't good at all. Total accumulation here is perhaps 6 inches. I guess areas close to the lake did get more due to lake effect, but they need to be more specific about for whom the warnings are intended. Six inches of snow in this part of the country is hardly significant unless it falls in May.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I've buttoned up the library for the night and spread salt on the walks for the 'big storm' tomorrow. Most of the schools have already cancelled classes, parking bans are in effect after midnight, and the stores are laughably busy with the storm panicked public.

I'll admit we shopped today, but it was of necessity and no milk or bread was among the purchases. Shamefully I did return later for forgotten dog food, and, *sigh*, more PEZ: bought a bunny and the last two Bambis...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I bought milk yesterday, not because of the storm but because we were out. The store was nearly empty of shoppers, which probably was in fact due to the snow since it was about 5 pm. No empty shelves in evidence, though.

The big storm is a dud here as far as I'm concerned. A foot or more of snow would have been significant. We got five or six inches instead of the 15 they were warning about, and it fell so gradually over a 36 hour period that it just wasn't a big deal.

[baphnedia.livejournal.com]

Whatever you do, don't let Argos see this post, else he might be upset that you mentioned Wuffies, but only in a rhetorical sense.

[argos (from livejournal.com)]

Too late. I've already seen it. Actually, if the NWS keeps crying "Wuff!" inappropriately, I may get together a pack to invade their HQ and teach them a lesson.

[baphnedia.livejournal.com]

I'll raise a leg to that!

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Snow is overforecast in my area too. Which is why it took everyone by surprise last month.,

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The trouble here is that when we do get a heavy blast, they have often failed to give any warnings. When they start sounding trumpets and beating drums about an event two days away, though, it usually is a total dud.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

More snow?? I rely more on my personal weather station, it's been far more accurate than the local bureau, oddly enough though Weather.com provides more accurate weather reports for my area :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Weather.com is so full of advertising that you can't get to the details.

The official National Weather Service is wrong so much of the time that you can't trust their predictions at all. I use them mainly for the satellite and radar information and interpret it myself.

By far the best information on current conditions is obtained by looking out the window or opening it. It seems that most of the time what they say is happening just isn't true.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I mentioned the SDS in that tweet- One of the services I use for weather is actually called the Weather Underground, or wunderground.com

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about that site, but I'm sold right now. I went there and looked up Union, IL (the closest village) and the readings that come out are from Cherry Lane Farm. That's right across the road from me, about 700 feet from my house. They put up a wind generator last fall and I thought it looked like there was a weather station on the tower...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Aha that's why you use a little program called weather watcher, user an older version and it pulls just the details from weather.com :) Very good, the new versions don't due to issues with the program pulling info without the ads ;)