Forecast this 30 March, 2010

 In a NYTimes article today, Leslie Kaufman writes,

"A study released this year by researchers at Yale and George Mason found that 56 percent of Americans trusted weathercasters to tell them about global warming far more than they trusted other news media or public figures like former Vice President Al Gore or Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate."

What? I Barely trust the weather man to accurately convey what the current weather is, let alone what it is going to be in 10 or 20 years. Al Roker has pulled the wool over my eyes one too many times.

Kaufman also writes,

"climate scientists use very different scientific methods from the meteorologists."

Yes, emperical science and data collected over time is VASTLY different from shaking a magic eight ball before the broadcast.

"Is it going to rain today, is it going to rain today."  

"Ask again later?! I go on in 3 minutes. Don't do this to me!"

(3 minutes later)

"Sorry folks this front is too   hard to predict. We have a high pressure system moving in on two low pressure systems. Add these to El Nino and a Canadian cold front moving and we just can't predict now what your afternoon weather will be like. We'll check back later after the computers crunch more numbers."