Sunday, September 11, 2011

If you're unhappy with the forecast kick a politician's ass...

Well, according to the current weather map Tropical Storm Maria is 111 miles away and looking out the hatch I see a very nice day... The only real noticeable difference is that we are pointed in the wrong direction. I wish all storms could be this nice...

Maria has been a stressful storm as it was pretty obvious that the collective weather science folks never quite got a handle on what it was going to do. As a result, we had big shifts in what the storm's path/intensity was going to be one forecast to the next. One moment it looked dire and we were ready to leave (and actually did at one point) for the greater safety of the mangroves, only to find that the next forecast downgraded the storm back down to a tropical depression or wave... Followed a few hours later by yet another forecast projecting it as a storm... Aaarrrggghhh!

Which is not to say I'm not a fan of meteorologists (though very lukewarm on amateur meteorologists and distrusting of so-called weather "gurus") and I certainly do not blame them for getting it wrong from time to time since they mostly get it right and in the process save our collective sailing/cruising asses from all sorts of weather-induced mayhem...

And sure, they could do better if they had more resources, but then to have more resources (which would equal better forecasts for us and in the long run save billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars) I suppose the folks in Washington playing the political game would have to get their heads out of their asses and write a few checks.

Just saying...

Listening to Reel Big Fish

So it goes...