Brian Williams Ain't The Only One.

[Cowboy]

The weather people here in Maine hype every storm. Last night and today we were told we would get 2 feet, I figured maybe 16 inches. We got 3". The sun is breaking through the clouds . It's 9 above and the wind is blowing 30+ mph.
Yes we do have a lot of snow on the ground. It's great insulation and I bank my whole house with it. My outdoor wood boiler keep my house at 70 with the use of old cast iron radiators. I have even gone green :?:  and just use a snow scoop and a shovel to keep everything clear. I have my wood piled on a hill and I make a track to the boiler, load the jet sled and give her a kick. It slides to the boiler. 61 years here in Maine and I don't want to live anywhere else. I even dreamed I shot a moose last night. Keep moving, life is good!
Nit Wit

 

[Al-53]

yes they hyped it here also..said we were getting 10-12 inches maybe more..we got 4 inches..but they were right with the wind speeds...gusts up to 50mph and white outs from the powdered snow...

House stays warm ..I been using coal for the last 10 years..before that wood for 20 years...I load the jet sled with 10 bags of coal..pull it to house with ATV..that will last me 8-10 days depending on how cold...stove uses a thermostat...tonight is going to be -18 ..seems sub zero weather most of the week here...

 

[patocazador]

They hype the weather everywhere. It's their only shot at GLORY. 

Down here there was a tropical storm that was reported to have a chance of hitting Tampa. The weatherman was on the beach acting like the wind was blowing him over. In the background an old couple walked by, bent over and picked up seashells. The woman's hair wasn't blowing a bit.  :lol:

 

[Al-53]

I think the supermarkets and stores have a contract with the weather service...tell them hype a storm up good so there sales go up....I had to go to wal mart yesterday to get a few things then to the supermarket...you would of thought the end of the world was coming with the amount of people in both places...that last big snow storm we had..you could not find a snow blower for 100 miles...or snow shovels....then when to had the news say about snow on roof and could collapse..the snow rakes were going out like hot cakes...I had to go to the hardware store to get some calcium chloride was to cold for salt to work...the had 2 pallets of snow rakes when no one else had any..charging double for them....

 

[Smokin' Joe]

One of local radio station host refers to the weather people as "Weather Terrorists". 

 

[Muley Hunter]

Being a weatherman is the only job that you can be wrong all the time, and still get paid.

 

[Alpha8D]

We heat with wood too. Soapstone stove upstairs and cast iron one down. Also heat my off-the-grid hunting cabin with wood. 67 years here in Wisconsin and I wouldn't live anywhere else except perhaps Main or rural Pennsylvania, or Colorado or western Wyoming. Heck I guess there's lots of places I've visited that I wouldn't mind living as long as we had four seasons and a genuine winter with snow. Being in a snow belt would be nice like along the shore of one of the Great Lakes. Then we'd still have good snow like when I was a kid in central Wisconsin.I MUST live in the USA though! That's where I really consider my home. I'm a veteran and we're a brotherhood all over the entire USA so that's the boundary of what I think of as "home".
Geeze did this get long winded. Sorry.
Alpha8D

 

[exMember]

wood heat here as well. We have electric heaters to that we turn on in the bathroom and living room, low setting, while we are away hunting. Just in case the temp dips, theres some heat to keep things from freezing.

 

[Muley Hunter]

My building is so warm that I never have to turn on the heat. Even when it's below zero outside.

Most of the time I have the AC going. I hate the heat.

 

[Standing Bear]

79* in Central Texas yesterday. Been trying to figure out where to get a wood fired AIR CONDITIONER.
TC

 

[exMember]

wouldnt that be something?!!

 

[RonRC]

You gentlemen (yes, even the mountain men) stirred my curiosity about the accuracy of the forecasts.
It depends on where you live. There are some locations that lend themselves to great accuracy and some are much complex and difficult to forecast. Overall, it looks pretty good.
Ron
Here are some results from Kansas:


"A seven-month study of weather forecasting at Kansas City television stations was conducted over 220 days, from April 22 to November 21, 2007. The seven-day forecasts for both high temperature and P.O.P. (probability of precipitation) for each station’s 10 p.m. telecast and from the N.O.A.A. Web site were recorded. For stations that did not offer a P.O.P. in the form of percent likelihood, the best impression of percent likelihood that could be inferred from the meteorologists’ words and graphics were used. The results of Kansas City’s high temperature and rainfall as reported at the K.C.I. airport weather station — which are the data that become the official record for weather at Kansas City — were also recorded. Those results were then compared to the high temperature and P.O.P. predictions to determine forecasting accuracy for each source for each of the seven days predicted."

This is for the primary weather forecast sources:

And finally, for Denver, CO, a particularly difficult place for predictions beyond a day or two:


Weather forecast accuracy for Denver, Colorado
The overall accuracy percent is computed from the one- to three-day out accuracy percentages for high temperature, low temperature, icon forecast precipitation (both rain and snow), and text forecast precipitation (both rain and snow). Temperature accuracy is the percentage of forecasts within three degrees. Precipitation accuracy is the percentage of correct forecasts. The forecasts are collected in the evening.
<table class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing:0in;mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in" colspan="2">

Last Month​

</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:1"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">National Weather Service   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">73.81%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:2"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">AccuWeather   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">72.32%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:3"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">MeteoGroup   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">71.73%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:4"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">Foreca   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">71.43%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:5"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">Weather Underground   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">69.35%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:6"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">The Weather Channel   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">69.05%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:7"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">WeatherBug   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">67.94%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:8"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">CustomWeather   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">66.37%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:9"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">Dark Sky (forecast.io)   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">60.12%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:10;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">Persistence   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">50.00%</td></tr></table> 
<table class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing:0in;mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in" colspan="2">

Last Year​

</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:1"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">The Weather Channel   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">71.99%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:2"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">MeteoGroup   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">71.93%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:3"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">WeatherBug   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">71.00%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:4"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">Foreca   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">69.99%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:5"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">Weather Underground   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">67.84%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:6"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">AccuWeather   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">67.15%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:7"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">National Weather Service   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">65.04%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:8"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">CustomWeather   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">63.80%</td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:9;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes"><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">Persistence   </td><td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">49.17%
</td></tr></table>

 

[patocazador]

The only place they are always right is Seattle.  Forecast rain and you'll be right almost all the time.

 

[Okie Hog]

Here the weather folks usually get the important stuff right; maybe because of  that big weather center in OK City.   Serious tornadoes are a fact of life here.   i've seen places where tornados tore the asphalt off roads. 

On Memorial Day, 1998 a small tornado touched down in our back yard.  Did $38,000 damage to the house.  The west fence fell toward the east.  The east fence went both ways:    

https://2img.net/h/i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll268/alsaqr/EastFenceFellTwoWaysSmall-2.jpg

 

[Smokin' Joe]

Here I always think the higher percentage of error is on the big ones.  Whip people into a frenzy only to hear later how the system changed.

 

[Muley Hunter]

I doubt the percentage is anywhere near that high in my area. If the weatherman predicts 2 ft of snow, and you get 2". Was he scored as getting it right? Not by me he isn't. if he predicts high winds, and you get 5mph winds. Was he right? If he says it will be 30 degrees today, and it's 60 degrees. Well....


I used to live in Big Bear Ca. It's small mountain town at 7500ft. It had a small radio station there. When he gave us the weather it was like this..............Now for the weather...........you heard him get up and walk across a wood floor, and then walk back............he had gone to look out the window.......The weather is raining.

He was never wrong.

 

[Smokin' Joe]

:lol!:

 

[RonRC]

I doubt the percentage is anywhere near that high in my area. If the weatherman predicts 2 ft of snow, and you get 2". Was he scored as getting it right? Not by me he isn't. if he predicts high winds, and you get 5mph winds. Was he right? If he says it will be 30 degrees today, and it's 60 degrees. Well....


I used to live in Big Bear Ca. It's small mountain town at 7500ft. It had a small radio station there. When he gave us the weather it was like this..............Now for the weather...........you heard him get up and walk across a wood floor, and then walk back............he had gone to look out the window.......The weather is raining.

He was never wrong.

Over there by the base of the Collegiate Range, in Buena Vista, I can imagine how difficult it would be to make weather predictions. I took a motorcycle ride there a few years ago in May with a prediction of cool and cloudy. It snowed on me all the way from Fair Play to Buena Vista. :shock:
Ron

 

[Muley Hunter]

Yes, mountain weather can be unpredictable.

I took the dog out 15 min ago, and it was snowing. As I look out the window now the sun is out.