Al Roker Gets it 100% Right

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Friend and Raleigh meteorologist Nate Johnson gets it exactly right when he says,

While I appreciate the need for humility when we blow a forecast - and trust me, no one takes it harder than we do when we get a forecast or communication wrong - I think we need to be more forthright when we get them right.

If folks want a pound of flesh for every busted forecast, I'd like the courtesy of not being thrown under the bus when the forecast was good.

The Governor of Georgia last night blamed meteorologists.

The whole reason I wrote Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather was because former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blamed meteorologists for his incompetence during Katrina.

I spoke, at length, this morning with a reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and she told me about a friend of hers still trapped after 19 hours with a baby she is breastfeeding in the car!

While meteorology is far from perfect, there are real consequences for not acting on storm warnings. 

Comments

  1. Mike BJanuary 29, 2014 at 12:14 PM

    I am happy to see meteorology pushing back on this subject. You hate to say "We told you so!", but that may be what it takes for people to pay attention and get prepared. I find it hard to believe that I knew about this several days in advance here in Kansas, but they want to blame the forecasters...

    ReplyDelete
  2. BrianJanuary 29, 2014 at 3:01 PM

    We no longer 'manage expectations' properly. We expect 24 hr forecasts to be 100% accurate (HA!) and we expect streets to be dry pavement during a winter storm. Neither of those ever happen. We've lost the ability to say "this is what we know/can do." Instead, we over promise and under deliver.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2014 at 8:34 AM

    Can you post a chronology of the NWS forecasts and warnings for metro Atlanta from Sunday through Wednesday ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BrianJanuary 30, 2014 at 1:26 PM

      Go here: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/?n=20140128winterstorm. The discussions are archived here: http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&product=AFD&issuedby=FFC&glossary=1

      Delete

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