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Forecasters totally blow prediction for winter storm- again

By Michael Tefft • on January 20, 2009

Here in Southeast Virginia we so seldom get any significant snowfall that I am always excited when the weather forecasters predict a significant snow event. After 44 years of living in this area I should know better by now than to believe anything the forecasters say with regard to snowfall.

Local forecasters and the National Weather Service all predicted that our area would receive 3 – 5 inches of snow, starting from midnight last night through this evening. So like an idiot I got excited yesterday evening when the temperature started to fall. Oh joy, we would soon be able to go outside and frolic in the snow. Pictures of snowballs fights and snowmen were dancing in my head. Like I said, I should have known better.

I cannot prove it statistically but after living in Virginia for 44 years I cannot remember when weather forecasters even came close to accurately predicting both the time of snowfall and the total accumulations. In almost every case when significant snowfall has been predicted it either did not snow at all or the accumulations were far less than predicted. Today was a perfect example. While it did actually snow, the snowfall started at least 8 hours after the predicted time. As for an accumulation of 3-5 inches, there was no accumulation anywhere in the Tidewater region. To make matters even worse, it snowed more this Saturday than it has today, and there was no prediction for snow on Saturday.

Amazingly the forecasters are still calling for 1 inch of snow even though it is apparent to anyone except a meteorologist that there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening. Every school in every city of Tidewater was closed today based on the forecast for significant snow accumulations. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were wasted due to the inability of local weather forecasters to even come close to accurately predict the winter storm.

How can anyone reliably predict that the planet is undergoing global warming and that man’s activities are the primary force behind global warming is beyond me when scientists and meteorologists cannot even predict the weather with a better than 50/50 record. From now on when snow is predicted for our area I will break out the sunscreen and set up our lounge chairs on the deck.