Oh no need to PM, my life is an
open book, not a very interesting book,
but no secrets. And I enjoy chatting it
up on these public threads.
With just a B.S. in atmospheric science,
BS is about all weather forecasters like me
are good for! Still, I am frequently astonished
by how bad the forecast is--weather forecasters
are constantly surprised. There is this crazy
idea at the NWS put out by our new boss--we
are the "No surprise weather service". What a
joke. The nature of weather is its unpredictability.
The best a person can do is find the consensus
forecast, and then clearly communicate that to
people. That is something that is not done well
right now by anybody--at least in my area. The
TV guys are mostly terrible, radio is a joke--
although NPR does a good job of reading the
forecast clearly. All the other stations muddle
it all up, or add bogus commentary.
I am sure that people just want to know if it's
going to rain...or when the big storm will hit etc.
Forecasts like "Mostly cloudy with scattered showers
...mainly north part in the afternoon" just go in one
ear and out the other (nevermind how badly detailed
forecasts such as an airport terminal forecast or
the marine forecast are communicated).
Anyway...I would like to see myself at home,
taking care of kids, and posting a daily
weather forecast for my area. It should be
a cinch to best the NWS at this game--take
what is already a pretty good product, and then
just remove the errors, or the occasional bad
thinking once a week.
The missing ingredient for my plan, is that
my wife the lawyer has to stay at her job,
and apparently she wants to quit if "we" get
pregnant. On one income my "journeyman forecaster"
job starts to look pretty good. (twelve years
with the NWS, and I am still a general forecaster
--did not kiss enough butt probably, heheh)
So the prospect for creating my dream job of raising
kids, trading stocks, and posting an incrementally
improved forecast for Seattle on the web, does not
look especially good right now. I may still jump ship
for teevee someday, my face looks just old enough now
to be on TV...but I will have to practice doing broadcasts
in front of my camcorder for a few years...and then
try out in a much smaller market than Seattle, maybe
Spokane.
Thanks for asking, like I said, I get a kick
out of chatting it up. I remember you Bonnie,
from the Kahuna thread--I never did buy that
gold however...and that was a good call so far.
--Mike |
