Several days ago, our local weather forecasters began predicting the storms that devastated the Midwest and parts of the deep South could enter our area. The storms didn’t happen here. Thank God!
Today one of our channels published an explanation of “why they were wrong.” The explanation was cogent, outlined the scientific reasons the storm had passed us, and explained the difficulty predicting the vagaries of the weather.
Most of the people who commented on the news story were irate that the forecast had been wrong. The station’s news story was seen as CYA instead of the explanation it was meant to be. The station was accused of hyping the dangers for some murky reasons that I didn’t quite understand.
The consensus of the negative commenters was that the station should have stressed the fact that it was possible for the storms to miss us, thereby negating the need for cancellation of some activities. (The station didn’t cancel the activities; that decision was made by people other than the tv broadcasters and their meteorologists.)
I would guess that 95% of the comments were negative. What did these people want? Did they want the death and destruction to descend upon us as it did in other locations? If the weather people had downplayed the danger of the storms and they had hit with the ferocity that wreaked havoc as they did in other places, the commenters would have been blaming the tv stations saying that the station should have issued stronger warnings.
Instead of thanking God, Mother Nature, or the whatever cosmic force they may believe exists, they seem like they can hardly wait to spew the most virulent, hateful opinions they can even though we were blessed. It almost makes me feel sorry for them; they must be very unhappy people.
One further thought—modern technology has made weather forecasting more accurate. In fact, it seems to me that the predictions are right far more often than they are wrong.
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