Bad weather ahead. Or not.

It seems like our North American Weather Forecasters got a little egg on their faces when they called for below normal winter conditions this season.  It has been the exactly opposite, thankfully.  Read it here.

I have never given much credence to their predictions anyways so it came as no surprise to me.  I was always of the belief that all they did was flip a coin and call it in the air.  Heads, bad weather is coming.  Tails, the opposite.  (Some prankster must have switched the coin for a two-headed one in this case).

To counter this gaffe, they are now predicting a warm winter .  Read.  Well I’ll be damned! They just never know when to call it quits, do they?  Predicting a warm winter with a mere few weeks remaining in the season is like me predicting flooding after a breached dike.  Maybe they got their coin back?  Look here Mr. Weather Forecaster, it’s ok, you don’t have to play makeup.  You got it wrong this year but there’s another winter in a few months and you can make amends then.  Heck, you can even make some summer predictions. That’s a bit easier.  Well sometimes there are tornadoes, floods, droughts…Remember a couple years ago when you predicted we would have the worst canker worms infestation ever and it turned out to be the opposite? Oh and how about when you predicted our city would see more than its normal share of mosquitoes only to see that prediction fly out the window like a skeeter. You just cannot get it right, can you? 

So let me get this right, Forecasters get paid to predict the weather, right? Ok, follow me here.  They are more right than wrong BUT they still get paid?  (Wait, I’m not done). Now, I get paid to do what I do whatever that is BUT if I don’t do whatever I get paid to do, I am fired? I can’t afford an efficiency rating of 50% on my job but they could? So not fair! (insert pout lips here).

And (Yes, I know, never start a sentence with ‘and’) This is why I always find it funny when someone tries to predict the end of the world.  I think to myself, ‘They cannot even predict the weather on a given day, not a season, a day, so how could they predict when the earth will meet its doom?”  Gimme a break it’s just my take.

Related articles

• Western weather forecasters get it wrong this winter (ctv.ca)
• Winter remains on hold (dispatch.com)
• Light Coats For This Unseasonably Not-Freezing Weather (refinery29.com)
• Warm winter ahead for most of Canada (cbc.ca)

Abolutely Gorgeous Out

I really have a problem understanding why anyone would say it was ‘absolutely gorgeous out’ on any given day during the winter.  I am not a pessimist or at least I don’t think I am but seriously.  I do agree that there are days in winter that are like freak days in that they are not what we have come to expect in our city.  The temps go above the normal and it feels good in comparison to what it normally is. ‘IN COMPARISON’.  When this happens, everyone walks around telling each other what an absolutely gorgeous day it is.  I think to myself, ‘Oh really? If it was so gorgeous, why are we both standing here decked out in winter garments?’

I do admit that fresh snow falling while the sun shines down, makes for a gorgeous sight. It doesn’t feel that gorgeous but it sure is just a beautiful thing to see.  You can almost, yes almost, ignore the cold just to bask in the moment. Unfortunately, that’s not what my fellow city folks mean when they gush over the weather.  It is a balmy -10 outside with no windchill for a change.  There is no sun and no fresh snow falling yet I hear, ‘No wind, absolutely gorgeous out!’  What are these people going to say in the summer when it’s around the 20 mark, sunny with a light cooling wind?

Coincidentally, it’s now -2 and that’s way above the normal for us. It’s Absolutely Warmer Out. (Not even sure I should ever use the word ‘warm’ during winter either).

Just my take.