Trust

Usually I follow Weather.com for my forecasts.

I’ve been following the Weather Channel since it was just 24 hours of Doppler radar.  On a rainy day, Dad and I could site forever, just watching the sweep of the radar change the precipitation pattern.  And if there was a tornado watch in affect?  We were rapt looking for that hook echo.

I’ve got the Weather.com app on my phone and have a couple bookmarks for my browser.

But today I get up in Santa Cruz, and I hear rain on the bathroom skylight.  I look out the window and I see rain.  What does Weather.com say?  It’s cloudy.  Cloudy until 8 this morning with the dun coming out later.

So I pull up the back-up, Wunderground.com.  Weather Underground says that it’s likely to rain until 3 PM today.  Now, yes, I’m pulling for rain because I can go home sooner, but still…  How do you get such discrepancies?

We also have a meteorologist working for PG&E who gives us periodic forecasts so that we can be prepared for days like today.

I have an acquaintance who is a meteorologist.  I met him when I bought a DSLR camera from him.  Later, I bought a tripod.  He get interviewed often by the Bay Area news shows.  I respect that there is a lot that goes into being a certified meteorologist as opposed to a weather girl in a tight top and skirt.  We all just wish we could be wrong as often as some forecasters are.