Those darn computer models: We might get whacked after all
By adamg - 12/19/10 - 12:29 am
Sunday morning update: Now it looks like we'll get a dusting to three inches, maybe, tonight, with, maybe, some light snow Monday and Tuesday.
Via Ben Jackson and Kevin Lemanowicz comes late word that you might want to head out for milk, bread and eggs in the morning, after all - at least one computer model now showing possibility of significant snow Sunday evening through Monday.
Post edited after ZedThou noticed I posted a two-day old Lemanowicz tweet; I swapped in his one from Saturday night, which actually says pretty much the same thing.
Comments
It looks like the Kevin
It looks like the Kevin Lemanowicz tweet is a couple of days old though, doesn't it? From Thursday night?
Oops, yes, but ...
This tweet from tonight, says:
Good, thanks. I'm hoping for
Good, thanks. I'm hoping for snow, as it gives Tom Brady and his scuffed balls (explained in the Bears game broadcast) a winning edge.
Enough of the reliance on computer models!
I realize computers are an integral part of forecasting these days, but I don't like that they're constantly mentioned, seemingly as an insurance policy against a botched forecast. I think Boston meteorologists may be unintentionally causing their own demise. If it's all about what the computer says, why do we need a local with a science degree to read the printout?
Some 20 years ago WBZ radio farmed out forecasting to Accu-Weather of State College, PA and remains a ratings leader. Some listeners probably think that when the WBZ radio anchor says, "Meteorologist Eliot Abrams is here now with the forecast" that he is actually in the studio on Soldiers Field Road, not hundreds of miles and several states away. If the locals merely want to relay the info they saw on a computer without committing to anything, cost saving measures like Accu-Weather can't be far away for TV.
http://nws.noaa.gov
http://nws.noaa.gov
Or for a more localized version
NWS Taunton - the antidote to crazed weather fanboys.
I agree, we need to go back
I agree, we need to go back to the days where the chance of snow was predicted based on the movement of an old man's knee.
It was just as accurate.
I mean, they've been trying to predict this storm since Tuesday and they'll only know what will actually happens when they look out the window and see snow or not
Not-so-old men measuring snowfall
Remember the year when the Globe graphihcally compared the winter's total accumulated snowfall to the height of Robert Parish?
Parish's vertical leap.
I thought it was compared to Parish arm stretched up and jumping. I was lucky enough to be somewhere south in the tropics that winter and my father was sending me the clipping so that I would know what I was missing. Checking out the records I think that would make it winter of 93-94 (96.3"). Given that amount it must have been just him standing there, since he was 7' tall.
I didn't think anyone remembered that!
Ah, the Pinatubo Years!
Seems we set records in 1992-3 and 1993-4, only to have them eclipsed by the Robert Parish graphic in 1995-6. The record from 1993-4 was equal to Parish's height.
I remember well. My son was born that winter on one of the three days that there was no snow pack on the ground at Logan. A blizzard hit the day after we got him home, burying Parish for the winter (he was then shown slam dunking the ball).
I really wonder if we are in for it again this year. Not only are both my cats starting to resemble Chewbacca, all the years where I've had good surfing in August and September have been Epic Snow Years. Compound that with the Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Volcano in Iceland spewing off and we might have a bit of a short run cooling trend.
We need milk and eggs anyway...
... but I figured I'd wait until the game starts :)