Geoff Fox is the chief meteorologist at the ABC affiliate in New Haven, Connecticut. He also keeps a pretty active blog away from work. In light of our own late Fall fickle forecasts (my seventh grade English teacher would be proud of that alliteration) here are two snippets from his entry on getting the forecast “right”:
It would be so nice if this was an easy forecast. Of course it is not. Here’s the simple truth. No one cares about the difficulty of my job. All they care about is whether I get it right! That’s as it should be.
I don’t want to be wrong. It is painful to be wrong. After all these years of forecasting, it’s my greatest work related fear.
He’s right: as someone who has dreamt about completely missing the forecast (6″ surprise snowfalls in July are a relief to wake up from) I can tell you that most meteorologists take their work home. It’s a hobby, and luckily for me and others it’s also a j-o-b. In the long run, the easy forecasts outweigh the tough ones. Nothing is finer than waking up early to weather that’s cooperating with your forecast to a tee. That said, the tough forecasts don’t get any easier, even with time!
For the record, we mets do like w(h)ine with our cheese.
