Weathermen and weather apps suck thread

[Poopdeck 0]

So I go to bed around midnight last night. I've watched the weather all day and checked my weather app before going to sleep. Partly cloudy no rain was in the forecast. Perfect for my last shad trip of the year before switching to the striper run. Wake up at 6:00 am hitch the boat up and check my weather app. Every hour for the entire day has nothing lower then a 60% chance of rain. Really!!!! 6 hours later and it's all rain all day. We get on the water and it's raining light. Each hour it starts raining a little harder. 3 hours into the trip it starts looking like heavy rains. That's it, we pull anchor and just get off the water before the steady deluge starts. Weathermen and weather apps suck. I'm not sure why I listen to them anymore when I can simply look out my kitchen window and decide what the weather is gonna be doing.

 

Oh, a slow day only three shad but there were a lot of boats out and all the prime places were full so we went to secondary spots. The big roe are in so that's the signal that the shad run in winding down and the stripers will be ramping up.

[Mike West 0]

My wife is obsessed with weather reports in various places where family lives....

Me, I walk outside and it's Hot or it's cold...it's raining or it's not raining...thats all the report I need.

[essequamvideri 0]

Deck,

 

One of two sites I look at is https://www.wunderground.com/. This is my go to for big water and http://www.weather.gov/ as a back up.

 

What site are you working with?

 

Michael

[Steeldrifter 0]

Par for the course, I have 3 different weather sites on my PC desktop including the underground one and they all are wrong more often than not. For some reason as technology has gotten better in the past 10 years you would think the forecasts would improve, but if anything they are worse then they ever have been.

[DrVette 0]

Last week the local forecasters were calling for rain mixed with light snow...no accumulation.

I look at the radar of the developing storm...It is sitting right on Albuquerque. I say to myself, this is going to get bad.

An Albuquerque low has always been the sign of heavy snows and blizzards.

Why don't these guys know that?

Everybody who has been on the Eastern slope of Colorado any length of time knows about it.

The Alb. low also creates some weird up-slope winds that can create vicious winds, thunderstorms, tornadoes as well as blizzards.

That night it started coming in. 50-60mph winds that caused all kinds of serious damage. Springs,Pueblo, Trinidad all the way out to Las Animas got hit hard. My metal roof partly came off, but i think i can salvage it. The snow was about 6-8" the next morning. Business awnings were shredded, trees took out several houses. My neighbor's tree took out my green house and fence. I thought we would get more snow and less wind...I even blew that prediction.

 

I think the problem lies with those who control hiring at the station. They seem to be constantly turning over new people because they want younger and prettier(thin the bikini weather girl from the 70s).

They were petty good at predicting here about 8-10 years ago then it slowly went down-hill. I first noticed things changing right before i quit the local paper (actually i just refused to sign a new contract that cut my earnings in half and increased my hours).

It pays to learn your local weather.I seriously doubt they can make a program that can really look at the historical record, nor find a way to impart that intuition that comes from watching for years, Watch those radars and see what happens...then you will learn what they forgot.

 

But another contender for the problem is a lot of incompetent people out there throwing these apps together to sell. I would bet the writer has little to no experience. They take their (non-functioning) app and convince suits in leather chairs that it works and costs less. Guess what they buy?

 

But in the end it looks like predicting the weather has become less of a concern to those who are in charge.

[Poopdeck 0]

Currently I'm using weatherbug but I'm about to embark on a quest to find a better app

[vicrider 0]

I know it seems like they make their calls out of some app they read but it ain't so. They actually do a good job in our area of both short and long term forecasts. Remember that most of our weathers are controlled by 3 things. High pressure areas. Low pressure areas. Jet stream activity. Though highs and lows can be tracked fairly easily the jet stream can make sudden and unpredictable changes from speeding up, slowing down, splitting in two streams, and totally change the paths of the high and low systems that interact to create our weather. Most of the weather in US keeps a fairly predictable west to east movement but even that can change when the backside of a low comes through just right.

 

You should know the only totally reliable thing is sticking your head out the window and checking your weather rock but with the access we have today to the weather radars, doppler radars, satellite imagery, storm tracking, lightning strikes, we should all be able to do as good a job with short term predictions as most local weather stations do. Even the ones with their own meteorologists mainly depend on National Weather Service and localized weather is limited.

 

In OK it pays to follow the dry line during spring and early summer because that is where the hot desert dry air is going to meet the Gulf moisture streaming out of TX and rapidly build the super cells that give birth to the nasty tornadoes and wind shear and down drafts we get on the plains. Fortunately for our area the dry line is usually found east of us and west of OK City and stretching down thru western TX. That's why the major storms are generally (not always) east of us. In 6 years I've had to move everyone to the storm shelter one time for actual warnings. We've been under a watch area quite often but I used to get sent to the basement by sirens in MN more often than I've had to go to the shelter here.

[flytire 0]

looking to the sky is probably the best app i use to determine whether or not to go fishing

 

[Warren 0]

I use http://www.weather.gov/ and http://www.weather.gov/gyx/winter They seem to be more accurate than most.

 

I think most of us who spend a lot of time outdoors can predict what the weather will be in short term better than most meteorologists.

[saltydancindave 0]

I use http://www.weather.gov/ and http://www.weather.gov/gyx/winter They seem to be more accurate than most.

 

I think most of us who spend a lot of time outdoors can predict what the weather will be in short term better than most meteorologists.

While a new standard with these same day in day out weather forecasts seems hyped up for thunderstorms like a possible hurricane are more news worthy. If NOAA & NCAR are available, it's the basis of any weather forecasts other than wetting a finger & holding it up in the air. If one needs way too much info for a better forecast : http://www.bearpawsweather.com/tropical/

[mikechell 0]

I don't know why people have such problems with weather reports. In all my years online, I don't recall a time when a weather report was as "off" as some of you are reporting. A little, yes. No one will ever be 100% accurate when the winds can change so easily.

 

For the last several years, I've used one site ... https://weather.com/weather/today/l/USFL0113:1:US ... The Weather Channel.

 

It's been accurate for any destination I've traveled to. When they DO err, it's on the worst scenario side and the weather turns out better than predicted. There have been a few times I've taken rain gear with me and not needed it. Rarely the other way around.

 

I think, some people have the wrong address in their app locator, and you're getting weather reports for some other section of the Country.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Maybe you guys have better weather forecasters down in FL or something Mike, but here in Michigan ours are WAY off more often than not.

[Poopdeck 0]

Florida must be a great place but it can't be that difficult to predict stifling heat, humidity and a thunderstorm every day. I watched the weather for two weeks to plan when I was taking my last shad trip. I made a tentative plan and arranged a fishing partner. Both of us setting up our schedules to keep this particular Saturday available. Yes unfortunately I still have many responsibilities and commitments that prevent me from flitting off on a whim to fish whenever The weather looks great so proper planning is essential. Everyday checking the weather, right up to 6 hours before lift off. All systems go only to find out at the last moment that in 6 hours the forecast changed from no rain to all rain all day. Six hours!!!!!! On the same day!!!! Sadly this is the norm in the winter and spring. The weather is more stable during summer and fall but during winter and spring the weatherman might as well be a hairdresser.

[Crackaig 0]

Had to go away for 3 days some time back. It was a Friday, Saturday Sunday job, so I had the Monday off. Great a fishing trip on my way home.Thursday evening I looked both on line, at the Met Office weather forecast and on the BBC Weather, for the Monday. Dry, bright and sunny. OK I'd have liked dry and overcast but that'll do.

 

Monday I arrived at a famous bit of water. The River Aire, the length Edmonds and Lee fished. As I walked to the river it started to rain. I put on my waterproof. It stopped raining, I took off my waterproof. After doing this three times I left the waterproof on, the rain showers were getting longer each time. There was no fishy activity so I decided on a move downstream. Just as I arrived at the river the heavens opened with a tremendous hailstorm. Not huge hailstones, but in 10 minutes it was lying like snow. I had taken shelter under some trees. Thinking that this would spoil the fishing I started back to the car.

 

Just as I was about to set off home, the sun came out. It looked good the sky had cleared so I thought I'd give it a go again. This time I set off downstream. The sunshine didn't last, it soon clouded over again. In the field downstream of the road there is a concrete plinth with two inspection covers set in it. Just as I was walking past lightning hit one of the inspection covers, only feet from me. Next I knew I was on the ground twitching, boy was I in some pain. Two hikers had seen me go down, and were running towards me. I shouted at them to keep back. I had no idea what had hit me, and didn't want to have them caught as well. By the time they helped me back to the car the pain in my chest had subsided but I felt like I had had cramp in every muscle. After an hours rest I felt up to driving.

 

Dry bright and sunny indeed. Never again will I trust a metrologist. Not even to tell me what the weather was like yesterday. I don't mind them not being able to forecast the weather, what I do object to is them spending so much money on failing to do it. At that time Met Office weather presenters were the highest paid civil servants in the land. In those days my day job was a railway signalman. If I did my job wrong I faced prison. What should someone, being paid 15 times what I earned, get for not doing theirs right?

 

Cheers,

C.

[mikechell 0]

It's been accurate for any destination I've traveled to.

Seems people still read only the parts they want to. I travel, a lot, for my job.

The Weather Channel's forecast have been good through many trips in many different parts of the Country.

One thing that never changes. Everyone, almost without fail, says the same thing about their own area, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, it'll change!" And everyone thinks their area is the only place that line pertains to.

 

I'm sticking to my advice ... use the Weather Channel site on my first post. To misquote Chico Escuela ... “Weather Channel been berry, berry good to me!”