If you’re still wondering where all that snow came from, you’re not alone.
So are many of our local forecasters.
Oops! So much for that belief that the brunt of the storm was over Tuesday afternoon, when our streets were for the most part just wet. It looked like most of our local prognosticators had gone one up on Punxsutawney, correctly saying it looked like we’d get 1-3 inches of snow.
Uh, not exactly.
Instead something called a “snow band” moved into the area around 6 p.m. and decided to stick around. It snowed hard for hours. The result? We woke to as much as 8 inches of snow in some areas of Delaware County. The narrow band seemed confined to a strip of the region from the airport into southeastern Delaware County.
A confession here. I’m not a big fan of the way local television handles the weather, in particular snow. So a part of me had to chuckle that despite all the doppler gizmos they throw at it, they still for the most part managed to punt the forecast. Then again, I also hate winter, so I was not thrilled as I drove to the office and found things getting increasingly worse the farther east I drove, eventually pulling into a parking lot covered with 8 inches of fluffy white stuff.
It reinforces one of my beliefs about the weather. Here’s my idea of a forecast: Stick your head out the window and tell me what it’s doing. Tell me what the high will be today, and the overnight low. Then give me your best guess what it will be like tomorrow. Really, outside that, the rest of it is pretty much the same as we got Tuesday night – fluff.
Having said that, I also know what it feels like to get something wrong. We do that from time to time in this racket. When we do we correct it.
Which is why this morning I take my hat off to one local TV forecaster. That would be Glenn Schwartz of Channel 10. Yeah, the guy they call “Hurricane.”
While it appeared to me that everyone else was desperately trying to explain how and why they failed to realize what was going to happen Tuesday night, Schwartz took another tack. He said he was wrong. Pretty simple, really. He didn’t sugar-coat it. He didn’t dance around the issue. He pretty much said he blew it. Good for him.
While I’m on the topic, it’s been brought to my attention that one forecaster who is no longer evevn on the air here managed to do something none of his colleagues did.
Rob Guarino used to be the weather guy on Fox-29. His contract was not renewed. He’s now working in Arizona, but he still keeps tabs on the local weather via his blog.
Guarino warned of the possibility of just such a snow band and some heavy snow totals.
Everyone should be happy this morning. It’s brutally cold out, just as everyone said it would be.
Me? I could have given you this forecast in November. It’s miserable out, and it will be until April. Then again, I hate winter.
Yes, I realize the temperature is supposed to push 60 degrees on Sunday. It will lure us in, have us thinking spring, just in time for the next snow storm.
Damn that Punxsutawney!
So are many of our local forecasters.
Oops! So much for that belief that the brunt of the storm was over Tuesday afternoon, when our streets were for the most part just wet. It looked like most of our local prognosticators had gone one up on Punxsutawney, correctly saying it looked like we’d get 1-3 inches of snow.
Uh, not exactly.
Instead something called a “snow band” moved into the area around 6 p.m. and decided to stick around. It snowed hard for hours. The result? We woke to as much as 8 inches of snow in some areas of Delaware County. The narrow band seemed confined to a strip of the region from the airport into southeastern Delaware County.
A confession here. I’m not a big fan of the way local television handles the weather, in particular snow. So a part of me had to chuckle that despite all the doppler gizmos they throw at it, they still for the most part managed to punt the forecast. Then again, I also hate winter, so I was not thrilled as I drove to the office and found things getting increasingly worse the farther east I drove, eventually pulling into a parking lot covered with 8 inches of fluffy white stuff.
It reinforces one of my beliefs about the weather. Here’s my idea of a forecast: Stick your head out the window and tell me what it’s doing. Tell me what the high will be today, and the overnight low. Then give me your best guess what it will be like tomorrow. Really, outside that, the rest of it is pretty much the same as we got Tuesday night – fluff.
Having said that, I also know what it feels like to get something wrong. We do that from time to time in this racket. When we do we correct it.
Which is why this morning I take my hat off to one local TV forecaster. That would be Glenn Schwartz of Channel 10. Yeah, the guy they call “Hurricane.”
While it appeared to me that everyone else was desperately trying to explain how and why they failed to realize what was going to happen Tuesday night, Schwartz took another tack. He said he was wrong. Pretty simple, really. He didn’t sugar-coat it. He didn’t dance around the issue. He pretty much said he blew it. Good for him.
While I’m on the topic, it’s been brought to my attention that one forecaster who is no longer evevn on the air here managed to do something none of his colleagues did.
Rob Guarino used to be the weather guy on Fox-29. His contract was not renewed. He’s now working in Arizona, but he still keeps tabs on the local weather via his blog.
Guarino warned of the possibility of just such a snow band and some heavy snow totals.
Everyone should be happy this morning. It’s brutally cold out, just as everyone said it would be.
Me? I could have given you this forecast in November. It’s miserable out, and it will be until April. Then again, I hate winter.
Yes, I realize the temperature is supposed to push 60 degrees on Sunday. It will lure us in, have us thinking spring, just in time for the next snow storm.
Damn that Punxsutawney!
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