ORIGINALLY WRITTEN
Predicting the weather is an imprecise science, so we can’t be too hard on the area forecasters for being so far off the mark regarding this weekend’s “major winter storm.” And, if they are going to be wrong about it, we’re grateful when they error on the side of overestimating a storm’s severity rather than underestimating it.
Now that the ominous storm system has moved on to other parts of the country, it’s almost comical to see how the weather hype forecasters generated for days on end had almost more impact on people around here than the weather itself. High school basketball games were postponed and wrestling matches cancelled probably unnecessarily. Some churches cancelled Sunday services when maybe they wouldn’t have had to.
But that’s hindsight. Weather forecasters-and all of us who plan or want to attend activities-have to make decisions on the best information we have at hand. In truth, life around here is a lot better because the weekend weather turned out as it did, even though we could have used more moisture.
Thanks to advances in science and technology, we know more today about how weather works than we have in human history. But Lesson 1 still holds: You can never be sure. -DR
