Couple thoughts on weather forecast

Since I got my iPhone several years ago, I rely on the forecast for my area provided by my silly phone. I have no idea where the forecast information originates from, but is local to the nearest village. Satellite, microwave tower, I don’t know, but if I jump in the truck and drive 100 miles, then look at the weather my phone forecast, it will be for the nearest town/village to the spot I am. And this weather forecast is very accurate.
The local radio/tv media is always giving weather forecast for the 6 million people that live in the city 80 some miles to the northwest of me, hugging Lake Ontario. These forecast mean little to us. And as had been mentioned in a early post it’s always the sky is falling forecast. I have to wonder if this is because the people that work in mass media communication tend to be under 45 , and haven’t really seen weather of the kind we used to get in the late sixties and all through the seventies. We just don’t get the same volume of snow as we once did, so a few inches blows their minds.

I keep the location turned off on my phone so it only displays the weather for location I have listed. I have about 10 locations listed so I can see the weather where the kids live ect if I want.

Finally I have a supporting voice on this WX issue. You are correct. Weather is cyclical. It is sad that it reports only the heavier populated areas. It is hard to keep viewers captured, so scare them with the SKY is falling. Greta Thunberg, take a breath. CM

(quoted from post at 04:53:01 01/26/21) Finally I have a supporting voice on this WX issue. You are correct. Weather is cyclical. It is sad that it reports only the heavier populated areas. It is hard to keep viewers captured, so scare them with the SKY is falling. Greta Thunberg, take a breath. CM

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Chuck, I don't know where you get your information but I would call it common knowledge for as long as I have been aware. There are multiple influences on our weather, the natural cycle is one, the other that I see as major is the one that half the population believes and the other half denies.

I agree. It seems every snowfall is hyped to snowmageddon status.

In the 60's and 70's, I remember a couple of times Dad had to hire a guy with a Cat to come and push snow out into the fields because our entire driveway was like a 3-4 foot deep snow tunnel.

Oops. Thought I was replying to Bruce.

not sure what my phone uses for weather but I like the fact it will alert me that rain is 5 mins away and its correct most of the time.

There used to be a little AM radio station out of Brockville, Ontario that had the absolute best weather forecasts I've ever seen. I don't recall them ever being wrong. It was all local and live too and served both sides of the border. I'm sad that station is gone, same for the one out of Cornwall. It had some great music. AM is all sports now if you can even pick any AM up.

I'm leaning towards the ratings being the issue with all the hype surrounding weather forecasts. Remember, TV is an advertising medium, nothing else, they entertain you, you watch commercials, they charge for ads based on ratings.

That being said if you're in the TV industry, nothing draws viewers, other than a big news story or some hit show, better than some catastrophic weather event, it's all about the ratings and the money.

I go to the NWS for my weather, no ads.

I tend to agree.....forecasting is much better, and I particularly like the moving radar and satellite views....you can narrow it down to the hour when rain will arrive. As well, we don't get near the snow we did at one time, looking out the window here sees less than 6 inches....whereas in the olden days we measured it in feet.

Ben

I run Yahoo weathering my phone but looking for a second source. I do the location thing so I have a few AZ and a few CO for reference.

Fear sells.

The big town near us, Lindsay, had a radio station,
and I guess still has, sort of. Maybe 10 years ago it
became just another arm of a multi media
corporation. It moved from AM to FM and the format
change was dramatic. Back before, in the AM dial ,
it was all locally produced. Sure sometimes it was a
bit corny, but it was a true reflection of the
community it served. There were programs that
featured more contemporary rock, local on the seen
live broadcast from events like the fall fair. At noon
we always got the farm crop and livestock report.
Followed by a report from the local funeral parlours,
with the reading of on air obituaries. Then an old
time country music show for 3 hours in the
afternoon. It was great!! The advertisement was
nearly all local businesses too, really a source of
community came from this little radio station. And
they also broadcast play by play of the local hero’s
Junior C Hockey games.. Now .... it stinks!! Just the
same crap that gets delivered into every other
market, practically no local information or event
coverage, no livestock and crop report, cause who
cares about that anyway?? I miss our old CKLY
AM.

I know what you mean, some of our roads were practically just tunnels. And the road grader would come by with a big wing, and push back the top half of the snow it had pushed off the road. Then come back and push it all back again. Some winters were hard on fences along the road with all that snow shoved up on them. Now almost no one pastures cattle, and fences are gone.

Yeah I think they should not describe weather as a negative. They should describe how the ground water will improve, the white will be beautiful, we can read Robert Frost poetry, we should enjoy this, get out the hot chocolate, we get to use all the weather-improvements we've made to our vehicles..... etc. Make it a POPSITIVE!

You have to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative ! Kinda sounds like an old Bing Crosby song , lol

I just use Environment Canada's forecast. No drama and no more inaccurate than the others. Farm zone gives a drying index, but get their forecast from the weather network minus the drama. I remember the Lindsay station when I was there with DHI in the late 80's. The obituaries being read with the sad organ music in the background was a little corny. One morning on my way to a farm, a DJ mustve been burning his bridges as he played some music with dirty lyrics and was swearing and belching between songs. Was entertaining while it lasted....

(quoted from post at 05:59:56 01/26/21)

There used to be a little AM radio station out of Brockville, Ontario that had the absolute best weather forecasts I've ever seen. I don't recall them ever being wrong. It was all local and live too and served both sides of the border. I'm sad that station is gone, same for the one out of Cornwall. It had some great music. AM is all sports now if you can even pick any AM up.

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I listen to CKON sometimes. Good variety on there. It's run by the folks from Akwasasne.

Yup , same here down south of the border , i set just about a 100 miles south of lake Eire and oh M G the sky is falling if we get and inch of snow. I can vaguely remember the 1950 snow storm but from then on yea we got snow . Back in my youth when winter set in here in Podock Jct. they would close the streets with hills because this town really did not have much for snow removal equipment . They had at the time two Gallon road graders that were the smaller ones powered by Farmall M engines and a ten foot blade . They had a hard enough time keeping the main roads open let lone the side streets . But us kids put the closed streets to good use as they made great sled riding hills . . The winters did not slow us down much . When we moved away to another smaller town they only had a old Mil surplus Dodge 3'/4 ton with a 9 foot plow on it for the whole village . when winter started to set in and you owned a car you made sure that you were ready to deal with it , Ya had and old wash tube in the trunk filled with dry sand or ashes , ya had a shovel or two , ya had your tire chains and now that the SNOW tire was the coming thing you put them on by the first of Nov. as we always got a good snow fall by the first of Nov. when hunting season came in . And the snow did not slow us down . We kids now that we were in Highschool always said that the only way they MIGHT close school is if we got a super heavy snow on judgement day and we would still have to go for atleast a half day then. I can still remember 1963 vary well and the years that followed . One Nov. day it started snowing around 6:30 in the morning as we were getting ready for school and dad was getting ready to head out to work , it was coming down hard and fast . I had my first car and i told my mom that i was just going to walk to school as it was not that far , i only went a half day and worked the other half for a vary large construction company in the afternoon on school days . By noon we had around 8 inches on the ground and it was still snowing . The village was having a rough time keeping the three main roads open . I walked home and had a bite of lunch changed clothes and WALKED to work as it was just a mile away.When i got to the shop my boss told me to get the Ford tractor out of the back bay and start to clean the lot. That was at 1:30 and i started at the back bay of the shop and worked my way to the U S highway that ran past the shop and turned around and worked my way back half way and back to the highway back and forth and the snow kept on coming. around 4:30 my boss came out and tood me to just give up and to help him get the one D 6 and the one big Gallon grader running and into the main shop as he said WE MAY NEED them come morning . Old U S 224 was back then a main truck route and the old semi['s coming by were all sporting chains . John and i got the D 6 and grader inside and turned on the infloor heat and left the over head heater on set at 70 . John then tolod me to take my company truck on home with me and i told him WHY it is all nice and dry and warm tucked away back in my play room ( when i got my first car and started TINKERING the owner of the company allowed me to use the old carpenter shop as my personal play room to work on my car and a good place for myself and my friends to HANG out at ) I did not want to take my brand new company truck out in that weather it was a brand new 1963 F 350 Ford one ton 4x4 with a 352 V8 and a A M radio with everything you would ever need on a job site . So since John lived east of me and had the Willie Jeep Pick up repowered with a 283 Chevy John ran me home . Aws we got to my house john said i don't think your going to have school tomorrow and i laughed and told him fat chance we always have school . My dad was not home yet and our drive was over knee deep so before i went in i fired up my cubby and dug out the drive . After supper my one close friend and i went bowling and Walked as it was JUST a little over a 1/4 mile and it was still snowing hard when he and i left the bowling alley , the truck traffic was almost a crawl the old 238 Detroit and the old 220 and 250 Cummins were working hard on the big hill out on the east end . While my buddy Jack and i were talking where he would head north two streets to his house and i would go west then south it started to lighting and thunder , never seen anything like that before and it started snowing harder . Got home and took a shower and went to bed . I was woke up at 1:30 by the phone ringing and dad cussing as he went to the dinning room to answer it and i heard him say hello and just a min i'll get him. and he came into my room and said it is for you . It was my boss and i answered it and i get COME AND GET ME i am Stuck in my drive , we have been called out to open roads . Use the D 6 . Well i did have a key for the place and i was the only one close . By now you could not even walk in what was down , car haw i could not even see my car it was buried next to the garage . I used and old set of Ski's to pole my way to the shop and had to dig down to get my key on the door . Before i left i dug out the heat houser for the D 6 and put that on angled the blade and out the door i went . Sometimes i could run 4 th gear but most it was 3rd gear and listening to the old D 6 cackle . weaving around stalled trucks and a few cars over to Boardman and down to Johns home and there he sat high centered in his drive one little tug and it was back to the shop and it is still snowing . Did a quick plow job around the main shop and office then John and i started getting other equipment up and running . We had people coming in to run equipment that had never worked for the company before if it had a blade or bucket it was being put to work . We even put the D 9 that i normally ran out on the roads as i had rt. Us 224 west to Deerfield and back to Ellsworth Rt 45 south to the county line then across Rt 165 to US 62 to the county line and back to the shop on U S 62 . Yep school was closed to three days not counting the week end . Then again in 64 and 65 . I have only missed two years of no snow . Now sofar this year i have only fired up my old junk snow blower once and used the kitchen broom once . This morning it was a bit icy . And last night the weather gussers were yacking gloom and doom .

Problem is they are using different weather models. Just like their hurricane forecasting. Heard the weather channel guy the other day batting around how much snow they would get in the lower Michigan trying to reconcile the European model and the US model.

We used to get those big northwesterly blizzards in KS where you couldn't see a thing. No so much anymore. Those had the light fluffy snow that didn't contain much moisture which was coming up from the gulf and meeting the front. Snow wasn't any good for snowballs.

A storm coming up from the southwest four corners area around New Mexico always brings a bunch of wet snow with the moisture coming in from the Pacific and Baja California. Great snowball and snowman making snow.

Read a great story from the Vet just now. I'd like to buy an enter button for his computer so he can break those stories in multiple paragraphs which are easier for my old eyes to follow. Don't flame me Vet, just trying to be helpful just as you are always helpful and entertaining. You are one of the greatest and I can't miss any of your posts so I can learn something. Thanks.

I am in western Canada near Edmonton and our winters lately have been plenty harsh right up there with some of the worst conditions experienced in the early 50's or the mid 70's. This winter up to now has been easier and we are very happy about that. The past few days have got back to seasonal for this time of year and it is snowing and -20 C right now (- 4 F) So it anybody is missing winter, you know which direction to head.

Here in northwest Iowa the weather forecasters are pretty darned accurate. We are far away from any large bodies of water and mountains maybe that makes a difference maybe not. We haven't seen the bad snowy winters for 40 years and I don't want to see that type of pattern come back. Central Iowa seems to get the bigger snows yet though. After last night's snow in central and eastern Iowa I'll bet David is enjoying that warm cab on his new loader tractor while cleaning out.

was this in south east Wisconsin?

It was really nice to have the cab, it pushes a lot more too.

No N/E Ohio . I have only missed two Ohio winters 66 and 67 and the 67 one i would have been more then happy with what ever mother nature could throw at us rather then the V C and N V A .

If your phone forecast keeps you current to your location even 100 miles away, I would not call that a silly phone. Truly sounds like a smart phone.