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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Waking Up Cranky

People often ask me if I'm ever in a bad mood. On TV I'm described as perky, energetic, optimistic and upbeat.

Not today.

I slept late today. I knew I wasn't going to see any white on the ground when I woke up. My forecast on Thursday called for 2"-4". On Friday, 1"-3", Saturday at 2 AM a coating to 1". The storm had trouble organizing. The atmosphere was getting robbed by a much stronger area of lift and energy south of the coastal low. The storm is also further southeast bringing most of the significant snowfall to southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

I want you to know that this isn't an easy job. I punish myself when the forecast falls apart. I'll be cranky all day. I feel like I let you down. But I think in this case, I'm punishing myself for no good reason. I did everything I could. I gave my best forecast every step of the way. I spent hours analyzing computer models and having weather discussions with my colleagues Geoff Fox, Bob Cox (WTIC NewsTalk 1080), Joe Furey, Dan Amrante and even yesterday Ryan Hanrahan from channel 30 (we went to college together).

This is not a perfect science. But I still take a busted forecast personally.

5 comments:

Mark Zenobi said...

You did the best you can do weather is unpredictable you know that better than I do. We will just call this the crazy winter of 11- 12. or as we say in Italian pazzo.....

Judy Falcigno said...

As you said, this is not a perfect science. You do a great job. I trust you and Geoff more than anyone else to be as accurate as possible. I for one am happy that the results were less than predicted instead of waking up to 6 or 8 inches!!!!

Justin Miller said...

Don't take it personally Rachel, this whole winter has been a bust which I don't really mind after being absolutely punished last year. Just do your best with the information at your disposal with the understanding that New England weather can change by the hour and nothing is a sure thing.

I for one am glad it didn't snow, because now I don't have to go anywhere today, lol.

Anonymous said...

Doggone Rachel, lighten up. You CANNOT control the weather (didn't they teach that in Earth-101, Introduction to Meterology? Double check, but it was probably scheduled on the syllabus for Day 1 .... oh, you were absent the first week?) Well, the lesson plan topic for Day 2 was "You Can't Mess With Mother Nature". That's why it's call weather "prediction". So relax ... if you keep beating yourself up you'll never make it as long as Dr. Mel ... and you DO see yourself as a weather news anchor in 2045, right? Everyone in CT loves you so much that you could tell us it's gonna snow in July and we'd still be happy with your forecasts! In fact, come July, a little snow might be exactly what we WANT to hear (instead of "there'll be another four days of 100+ temperatures".) John in Canterbury. :)

Anonymous said...

I work outside saturday is my day off,almost turned down 8 hours overtime because of the snow. Very happy that we got none here in groton ct . not your fault channel 3 got it wrong too! keep up the great work I will still watch your forecast every nite even if you are never right again. bobulous

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