STUPIDIST QUESTION A GUEST CAN ASK YOU!

[Randy B]

I got this question all the time. In fact, I became a bit of an amateur meteorologist. Something to the effect of: [INDENT]"Well, I just checked the park's "AccuWeather Radar" (AKA 'weather.com') and it looks like the rain will be here in another hour or so, but there’s a bit of a break developing so there's a chance it'll miss us.” [/INDENT]They seemed to look past the fact that I just told them “it’s either going to rain or it isn’t” and formulated their plans accordingly.

They should hire me over at Fox 35.

At least you didn't predict 2' of snow. :D:

Actually I would suspect that the SG was asking you because you live here and possibly saw the local news last night or listened to a local radio station before coming to work. They didn't. So you may have info that they don't. But admitting that you didn't watch the news last night/listened to radio at drive time/etc. and so don't know would only be a problem to the true obnoxious type of SG and those won't be happy no matter what you tell them.

Randy

[BRWombat]

You could always adapt the line from Naked Gun: "The forecast I read gives it a 50/50 chance of raining, though there's only a 10 percent chance of that." :p:

[dancinghomer]

Being a meteorologist, one recommendation I would use when someone asks about the weather and you are not sure what it is actually going to do that day (does happen to me all the time, I don't forecast everyday unless I have plans or have been asked to forecast for a certain day in advance), just tell them that the weather should be similar to the previous day and go ahead and throw in a chance of rain (it never hurts). Most people I know when I tell them the weather should be similar, they will understand that the temperature will probably be a couple degrees off from the previous day, but most people have a hard time discerning slight changes in temperature day to day. Of course this doesn't work if there happens to be a frontal passage in the area.

Of course they probably will just hear "perfect weather, we have a dome over the parks" when you tell them anyways.

[Cheshire Figment]

Of course they probably will just hear "perfect weather, we have a dome over the parks" when you tell them anyways.

No, it is not a dome. It is a giant umbrella. Unfortunately we had to send it out for repair and the manufacturer has not yet returned it to us.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

No, it is not a dome. It is a giant umbrella. Unfortunately we had to send it out for repair and the manufacturer has not yet returned it to us.

Ohhhhh! And I thought that I missed seeing it being deployed!!

[Princess Susi]

Being a meteorologist, one recommendation I would use when someone asks about the weather and you are not sure what it is actually going to do that day (does happen to me all the time, I don't forecast everyday unless I have plans or have been asked to forecast for a certain day in advance), just tell them that the weather should be similar to the previous day and go ahead and throw in a chance of rain (it never hurts). Most people I know when I tell them the weather should be similar, they will understand that the temperature will probably be a couple degrees off from the previous day, but most people have a hard time discerning slight changes in temperature day to day. Of course this doesn't work if there happens to be a frontal passage in the area.

Of course they probably will just hear "perfect weather, we have a dome over the parks" when you tell them anyways.

That way of broadcasting would not work in Denver, with it's "Don't like the weather?...Wait a minute!" micro climates! LOLOLOLOL!!!! It is always different from day to day and mile to mile, cept the Summer...Summer is pretty static...Lots of thunder storms and lightening!!!! I LOVE thunder boomers. Very interesting phenomena...Now I can do without the Tornados that come in close to Denver. We had one about 5 miles out when we lived on the east side of town, but you never know with those suckers...

Are you a private sector forecaster for construction companies or do you work for a TV or Radio station? Or maybe the National Weather Service?

Oooooooh...I love meteorology...it is so much fun... :D: I always wanted to go back to school and get a degree in Meteorology along with my Media Studies (radio broadcasting). That would be cool to be a weather forecaster. Or a foolish storm chaser! WOW!!!! I am a geek when it comes to watching all those cool weather shows on The Discovery Channel and The Weather Channel. I love all those shows. Cool.....
sues

[dancinghomer]

That way of broadcasting would not work in Denver, with it's "Don't like the weather?...Wait a minute!" micro climates! LOLOLOLOL!!!! It is always different from day to day and mile to mile, cept the Summer...Summer is pretty static...Lots of thunder storms and lightening!!!! I LOVE thunder boomers. Very interesting phenomena...Now I can do without the Tornados that come in close to Denver. We had one about 5 miles out when we lived on the east side of town, but you never know with those suckers...

Are you a private sector forecaster for construction companies or do you work for a TV or Radio station? Or maybe the National Weather Service?

Oooooooh...I love meteorology...it is so much fun... :D: I always wanted to go back to school and get a degree in Meteorology along with my Media Studies (radio broadcasting). That would be cool to be a weather forecaster. Or a foolish storm chaser! WOW!!!! I am a geek when it comes to watching all those cool weather shows on The Discovery Channel and The Weather Channel. I love all those shows. Cool.....
sues

Yeah, my suggestion for those at Disneyland or WDW wouldn't work that well for the Denver area, or any area that has a big influence from mountains or a very local body of water. Mountains are probably the most annoying thing to have to factor in when forecasting for cities for me. Every single storm acts differently even if the conditions are exactly the same.

There is nothing I love more in the world than a thunderstorm (yes, even more than Disney). That is what convinced me to pursue my degree in meteorology. Growing up in the Chicago-land area gave me plenty of thunderstorms to experience throughout the years, and plenty of severe ones too (which I'm sure Syndrome would agree with). That made my decision of which University to go to for my degree in meteorology very tough. My choices came down to the University of Wisconsin Madison campus, Florida State University, and Penn State University. I ended up choosing Penn State because when I visited there I absolutely fell in love with the campus. The only downfall there is, thunderstorms are extremely rare.

I graduated from Penn State in May '07, and since Meteorology is a very competitive field and small, I'm currently still looking for my first real job. While I would love to be a professional forecaster, there are very few places that hire entry-level forecasters now because of computers. I did go through the interview process at Accuweather, but once I learned that I would have to work there a minimum of 3 years for very little pay and extremely poor hours, I took my name out of the pool of applicants. After going through that process and talking to the people that work there, I could understand why they are constantly hiring new people to forecast for them.

[dancinghomer]

I’m currently in talks and will be having an interview with the AWIPS people this coming week and hopefully will be working at the network control facility fixing it when it breaks down. AWIPS is the advance weather interactive processing system that the NWS uses to gather its observations all across the country and relay it to the forecasts so they can make efficient forecasts in a timely manner.

Besides for the AWIPS people, I’ve been applying to places everywhere in fields ranging from power companies to airlines, basically any company that is looking for a meteorologist. The only thing I didn’t want to do is broadcasting, I was never a big fan of public speaking, so I knew from the beginning that was out. Of course, if I ever see that Disney is hiring a meteorologist, I would be on that so quickly.

Meteorology is such a fantastic field and is always unique anytime you look at it, since the atmosphere is constantly changing. Obtaining the degree was pretty difficult since it requires a heavy knowledge of calculus (yuck), due to the large equations used in the forecasting models.

I don’t think you are insane for wanting to storm chase. That is something I have always wanted to do, but I would only do it with a few select organizations, due to how dangerous it is to do. I once saw a story on CNN (was sometime during the spring in ’06) about a company that would organize and send you information about how you could go tornado chasing for a family vacation by yourself. I was pretty irate when I saw that story and brought it up to my professors at Penn State. That generated some interesting responses back from them.

Some of the shows on the Discovery Channel are really well done on meteorology, while some need to be destroyed and never shown again due to how much wrong information they brought up during the shows. The tornado chasing one they showed this past fall was one I was sad to see ended. I used to love watching the Weather Channel, but I find it hard to watch now because I can’t trust their forecasts anymore because there is very little human interaction in the forecasts because they just let the computers do all the work. If you want me to explain why computers doing the forecasting will never fully happen, let me know and I’ll be glad to explain it.

Wow, this went on longer than I thought (had to split it because of post length). If anyone has any questions on meteorology and wants some input feel free to ask or PM me and I’ll fill you in. The same goes if you are looking for a forecast for something and ones you are seeing seem a little weird.

[Whazzup]

I agree a thunderstorm is a dramatic and fascinating phenomenon but here in Florida they are downright scary! Most summer days from about mid-May through September or October, we have afternoon thunderstorms with heavy lightning. It is very dangerous being outside during those storms, with lightning striking fences, trees, buildings and other tall objects. I think Tampa(?) is the lightning capital of the U.S. but the rest of Florida and other parts of the southeast are right up there. (Correct me if I'm wrong, dancing homer and other meteorologists.)

Next time you're at WDW, notice that all the buldings have short, upright lightning rods spaced across the roofs to help prevent the buildings from direct strikes. One of the worst lightning storms I've experienced was at WDW while walking down the covered ramp from the monorail. It was crashing nonstop in the air around us and I felt really exposed even with a cover over me. Do they stop running the monorails during lightning storms?

Lightning really scares me, as I seem to be especially vulnerable to eletricity. At work during the winter my slacks and blouses always stayed plastered to my body from static electricity, even when nobody else was experiencing that problem. The anti-static sprays don't seem to help much. I can walk around in a store, especially WalMart, and when I reach out to touch something I get a static shock with an audible snap that makes me jump. DH doesn't have that problem and he laughs when I go EEK! when I get a jolt of static. Can anyone explain why some people might be more "eletronically attractive" than others?

[hobie16]

Can anyone explain why some people might be more "eletronically attractive" than others?

The charge came from static electricity generated by friction between material (cloth, floor, shoes and floor) especially in dry locations. In addition, the human body is filled with chemical fluids; the mix of them in most of the cases is an acid (pH over 7). When the body is acid we can conduct electricity very well and we cannot keep much electric charge. But if we are below 7, our body is acting like an insulator keeping a lot of charge. When you drink water or other acid fluids you are adding salts to the body increasing the pH (makes the body more acid).

Or, you need to drink more water.