The Weatherman

How come the weatherman can mess up as much as he wants and not face consequences? Seriously, why do we as a society tolerate this gross incompetence?

(And by weatherman I mean weather.com, the weather section in every newspaper, the national weather service, and whatever quack is appearing on your local news.)

For about 4 days straight we received winter snow warnings, telling us to expect 3-8 inches of snow each day. So I'm all excited, ready to bust out my snow gear and...

1 inch.

That's all we got.

The entire week.

I can recall the last huge storm we got. It was last year. About 16 inches in a 24 hour period. The town just about closed down. I actually skied to work during a blizzard. When I got there 30 minutes later (skiing to work isn't as easy nor efficient as I had hoped) I checked out weather.com for that day:

Partly cloudy. 20% chance of snow.

The blizzard continued for the rest of that day.

Now, if you're a doctor and you misdiagnose a patient, you've got a pretty good chance of getting sued. If you're a mechanic and you're wrong about a car problem, the customer can come back and demand a refund. If you're the weatherman you can come on the news, give a forecast that is so bad it makes Bill Walton's NBA playoff predictions look insightful, and...

Nothing happens.

The next day everyone tunes in again. And then is oddly surprised when it doesn't come out the way you said it would.

This is amazing to me. Nighttime newscasts frequently ignore things like global nuclear proliferation treaties and scientific developments that would have blown away Newton, yet we still zealously reserve a running 6 minute segment every night for these quacks and their GREEN SCREENS OF LIES.

Why is that? What is wrong with us?

Of course, the weatherman-apologist will reply, "Well, the weather is such an intricate, complex system that it is extremely difficult for anyone to say what will happen from one minute to the next. Even with the advancements in technology we have, it is nearly impossible to predict."

Exactly! So why pretend that you can?

I just think every weather forecast should begin with the disclaimer: "Please note that we really have no idea what's going to happen with the weather. These forecasts are given only for entertainment and to maintain tradition. Much like the English stripping the royalty of their power but keeping them around anyway. Do not take any of the following seriously."

And then the camera would go to Kevin Eubanks, who would cheerfully pipe in with, "Thanks, Debbie! Here's your forecast for today folks..."

If you think about it, the only thing the weatherman can really tell you is what the weather is like right now. So if that's what you want, you should tune in, flip open the paper, or bring up weather.com.

Or you could just go outside.

And yes, I too am astonished that I wrote this much about the weatherman.