"Unforeseen Storm"? You're Kidding, Right?!

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"That's our story and we're sticking to it!" seems to be Southwest's (SWA) strategy of blaming "unforeseen weather" for their operational meltdowns. 

I've often written about weather being the "all-purpose excuse" when businesses fail their customers or fail to meet organizational goals. But, Southwest's continuing to offer weather as an excuse for their current meltdown is particularly egregious. 

This is my first forecast of the storm and cold wave back on December 8. There was more on December 9. To conclude the December 9 forecast, I wrote:

The first forecast with detailed timing and extent of the event was December 12. This forecast was amazingly accurate considering the event didn't begin until the 22nd. You can roll the blog back and see the extremely detailed forecasts between the 12th and 22nd. I believe you will be impressed.

SWA has an internal meteorology department. It is unthinkable they missed this event. If I were employed by them, I wonder how I would feel being thrown under the bus like this. As a meteorologist, I object because it makes us look incompetent when we did our job extremely well. 

Finally, this continuing use of weather as an all-purpose excuse hurts the credibility of American business. 

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