A Threat of Rain

I planted some bedding plants a week ago.  I go for perennials mostly, but this year, I sprung for some annuals to liven up the front beds.  For the past several days, the forecast has predicted rain.  So I didn't water.  I expected God to.

Yesterday, I looked at my little flowers and thought, "I'd better go ahead and water these."  So I set the sprinkler up and watered both beds for a half an hour.

This morning, the sky is overcast (again!) and they are forecasting rain.  I never know whether or not to believe them.  Sometimes they forecast it and we don't get any, sometimes they nail it head on.

I probably didn't hurt my little flowers giving them a drink, even if it does rain this afternoon (or all weekend like they are suggesting) but the sky is pretty wide open.  Doesn't look much like ominous weather.  But I guess that can blow up pretty quickly anyway.

When you think about it, forecasting weather is a crapshoot.  It's all based on past weather patterns and the predictions are tied to computer modeling.  They know a lot of things about destructive weather; but just the regular 'blow in and rain' type clouds are largely ignored when it comes to study.

It must be a labor of love to study the weather.  You're trying to give people notice to take shelter when things go very badly, or evacuate when things are life threatening.  The rest of the time, the audience busts your chops if they didn't grab an umbrella and get soaked on the way to their car.

If you guess wrong often enough, people will just quit believing you and when you need them to take shelter or evacuate, they don't trust that you know what you're talking about.  There are a lot of professions that use simulations and modeling to make predictions, but only a few of them have to convince large groups of people to change their behaviors.

It's a thankless task for the most part.  My biggest issue with the weather forecast in Tulsa today is that the channel that runs Tulsa weather nonstop on cable (247, get it?  Weather 24/7?) has graphics that cause the left hand side of the screen to be off the edge of the viewing surface on all my TVs.  And the left hand column is where the current days' highs and lows are listed.  So, even when I take the time to check the weather, sometimes I'm just guessing.

--Sandee Wagner