I have to confess - I’m a weather forecast junkie.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with weather forecasts, especially during the spring and summer months.
I think it must have something to do with living in a northern climate and facing months of dreary winter conditions.
Ever since I was a kid, I looked forward to June, July and August. I wanted every day to be hot and sunny, so I could do summertime kid things, like camping out in the backyard, going swimming, and stuff like that.
Old habits die hard. I’m still interested in the weather for much the same reasons, only as an adult they seem to have more to do with what work I can do outside, as opposed to what play.
With the advent of the Weather Channel back in the early 1980s, I could get my fix on a minute by minute basis, and I did.
I remember being practically glued to the station whenever the weather turned sour, waiting for any sign of improving summer temperatures and more sunshine. It didn’t seem to matter how much attention I paid to it, however; it we were having an unseasonable summer, nothing the weather channel could do or say seemed to be able to change that. I’d listen to the forecast and get even more frustrated about what was happening outside.
It wasn’t that the forecast actually had an impact on my future plans, either; my friends and I inevitably had our weekend plans already well laid out, and they were going to transpire, no matter what the weather did. It was just comforting to know the weekend was going to be good before going into it - it sort of ramped up the anticipation of a good time.
Nowadays, I have three different internet weather sites bookmarked on my computer. It’s great, because now, if I don’t like one forecast, I can check the others, and more often than not, find one I can live with.
They may all be talking about the same weather, in the same location, but it is really amazing how different the forecast can be sometimes.
Last week’s forecast were a good example of these differences. I was doing okay with the weather we’d been having through July, and I was a little bummed out when last week’s forecast called for heavy rain and cooler temperatures. I wasn’t ready for that - I didn’t want to see that sunny, hot weather interupted, so I strayed from the site I usually read and checked the others.
Sure enough, I found one that offered less rain, higher low temperatures, and a earlier forecasted return to summer conditions.
It was enough to get me through the week - regardless of whether it turned out to be true or not. At this point in time, in retrospect, it didn’t matter which one was most right.
I suppose that should bother me a bit. After all, I’m wasting a lot of time - and summer activities - checking out these predictions.
But I guess to me, weather forecasting is much like any other prediction that I take to heart - all I really want to hear is the forecast that makes me most satisfied - and I’m willing to keep listening until I hear it.