Meteorologicus Interruptus

[dolari]

Dear Weatherpeople.

Okay, I realize a lot of folks don't like rainy days. I love them. I love thunderstorms. And in order to find out when they happen, I look to you.

You've dissapointed me very much the last few "percent of precipitation" announcements. I've seen numbers as high at 80% chances of thunderstorms, which end up with super dry results.

Today, you promised a 100% chance of THUNDERSTORMS. Holy cow, I love thunderstorms. And 100% chance? I was ready to sing your praises when it happened. And yet, it's dry out there. Grey...but dry.

Please relay my complaints to the upper atmosphere when you consult them for your next chance of precipitation meeting.

Yours, etc.

Jenn

PS - It's SUNNY?! 100% of rain and it's SUNNY out there?! ::shakes fist::

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

LOL. I feel your pain, but...LOL.

Meterologists.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

(sp!)

[erinlefey.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorite declarations at work. Someone mentions this sort of thing, and I get to stand up and clarify it. The flipside, of course, being that the meteorologists will still say 20% chance of rain...while it's raining!

Then I get to stand up and give the explanation. It's sort of a tradition.

The meteorologists look at the data for the day, like the humidity, the temperature, the wind directions, whether or not the local pigeons have gas, whatever. Everything EXCEPT whether or not it's raining. Then they look at the last 100 days that had exactly the same conditions, and count how many of them had rain. That's the percentage.

So when they say 100% chance of rain, that means that in all the previous days like this, it rained! Now, today it didn't. So, next time, if they were accurate, they'd say there was a 99% chance of rain. Because one day in the last 100, when conditions (except for the rain) it was exactly like this...it rained!

The flipside is that on a day where they said 20% chance of rain, and it rained, there's no reason to change the percentage. It just goes up to 21%.

I love meteorology. I just don't know why they call it a science.

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know the explanation... I JUST WANT THE GOSH DARNED RAIN! :D

There have been two squall lines of MASSIVE thunderstorms forming all day, literally a mile to my east, going east. We HEAR the storm - we're not GETTING the storm.

I doubt a third squall line is going to form, but if it does, I have a feeling it'll be JUST to our east and we won't see a thing.

::pouts::

[labrat78.livejournal.com]

You want rain?

Come up here, I got more than I know what to do with.

If I ever win the lottery I wanna become a meteorologist but that requires a lot of schooling.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

One of the things you'll miss when you move up here is thunderstorms. We get such pitiful thunderstorms that by the time they get started they're already finishing : (