Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Bravo National Weather Service !

Last night’s blog talked about the media over-hype of the Blizzard of 2015.  Over 7 states were placed under Blizzard Warnings 2 days in advance.  In reality, it has been the Blizzard of 2015 in 4 states, but not in the 3 that have the most population (PA,NY, NJ.)  It takes a confident forecaster to issue Blizzard Warnings 2 days in advance of the storm.  It takes a courageous forecaster (Gary Szatkowski NWS Philadelphia) to admit he was wrong.  Szatkowski tweeted earlier Tuesday morning: "my deepest apologies to many key decision makers and so many members of the general public."

"You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right, and we didn't," he said in another tweet. "Once again, I'm sorry."  Wow!   Do you hear anyone in the media saying they overhyped this system?   Nope…in fact The Weather Channel was begging viewers to send videos of the heavy snow since most of their reporters were in places that were mainly clear.  Cudos to the NWS.  They were wrong and they even apologized to the public.  Awesome!   You should know it was the same Gary Szatkowski who made the CORRECT forecast regarding Hurricane Sandy’s turn back towards land in 2012.   As I mentioned yesterday, hurricanes involve evacuations and need longer advance notice to prepare.   Snowstorms/ Blizzards?   2 days plus?   I think not.        Of course all of the politicians are hiding behind the old “better safe than sorry” theme.  My take?  You cry Wolf(Alarmists) too often and for future storms nobody listens.

 

Locally, what great weather!   74 for a high in late January?   I feel your pain Boston!  Better luck in the Super Bowl!

 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

So are these computer models that got it wrong are the same models that are predicting the disasters with global warming 50 years from now?

And if so...why are the models predicting what will happen 50 years from now correct and yet get the short range wrong?

Hey its getting to be Mardi Gras Season....hoping for good weather in the weeks to come...