The Most Secure Job in America
Check out this link from a WGN weatherman's blog about today's snowstorm.
The author starts out by making it seem like being a weatherman is tough work:
This is the meteorologist's Superbowl! This is crunch time. A major winter storm is bearing down on the Midwest and the Chicago area and the weatherman's job is to warn everyone about what will happen and get it right.
These are the times of sleepless nights, hours spent in front of the computer painstakingly "Einsteining" the various atmospheric models, looking for that one elusive bit of information that will reveal the storm's correct path.
Very telling is the final line of the entry: "How will it all pan out? Time will of course tell and as usual, the weather will win again- no matter what is forecast!"
"Time will tell" doesn't cut it. Isn't it the weatherman's job to tell us how it will pan out? Any time a winter storm heads our way and the extent of the storm is inevitably misforecast, I am left to wonder how these guys stay employed. How many instances as a kid did I forego doing my homework the night before a big a storm, only to find out the next morning that it was raining? Yep, I still hold a grudge.
Another example: In law school, we had a 3 foot snow over two days during my 1L year. The snow storm started in the middle of the night. There were about 6 inches of snow on the ground when I woke in the morning and it was coming down like a banshee (I love that phrase!). Three feet over two days. I went to bed after midnight the night the snow started. Just before turning off my computer, a friend of mine IM'd me to say he heard a rumor that we were in for 14 inches of snow the next day. I checked every weather forecast on the internet and found NOT ONE meteorologist who had predicted ANY snow! I signed off that night saying to my friend, "I'll believe it when I see it." Sure enough, three feet. Seriously, how do these people keep their jobs?
The local forecast is for 8 inches of snow in Chicago. So far, we have what I will call a "heavy dusting." Like the weather blog says, I guess time will tell whether the prediction is right.
"The weather will win again--no matter what is forecast." I think that is every meteorologist's motto.
The author starts out by making it seem like being a weatherman is tough work:
This is the meteorologist's Superbowl! This is crunch time. A major winter storm is bearing down on the Midwest and the Chicago area and the weatherman's job is to warn everyone about what will happen and get it right.
These are the times of sleepless nights, hours spent in front of the computer painstakingly "Einsteining" the various atmospheric models, looking for that one elusive bit of information that will reveal the storm's correct path.
Very telling is the final line of the entry: "How will it all pan out? Time will of course tell and as usual, the weather will win again- no matter what is forecast!"
"Time will tell" doesn't cut it. Isn't it the weatherman's job to tell us how it will pan out? Any time a winter storm heads our way and the extent of the storm is inevitably misforecast, I am left to wonder how these guys stay employed. How many instances as a kid did I forego doing my homework the night before a big a storm, only to find out the next morning that it was raining? Yep, I still hold a grudge.
Another example: In law school, we had a 3 foot snow over two days during my 1L year. The snow storm started in the middle of the night. There were about 6 inches of snow on the ground when I woke in the morning and it was coming down like a banshee (I love that phrase!). Three feet over two days. I went to bed after midnight the night the snow started. Just before turning off my computer, a friend of mine IM'd me to say he heard a rumor that we were in for 14 inches of snow the next day. I checked every weather forecast on the internet and found NOT ONE meteorologist who had predicted ANY snow! I signed off that night saying to my friend, "I'll believe it when I see it." Sure enough, three feet. Seriously, how do these people keep their jobs?
The local forecast is for 8 inches of snow in Chicago. So far, we have what I will call a "heavy dusting." Like the weather blog says, I guess time will tell whether the prediction is right.
"The weather will win again--no matter what is forecast." I think that is every meteorologist's motto.
posted by Mike C | 7:51 AM
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