07/21/2024
Today I'm going to teach you a little bit about information interpretation leading up to my daily share of the link to my blog. While I could say plenty of negative things about how mainstream media handles weather, with the disclaimer that a lot of my colleagues in media have to word things a certain way to pull in views and clicks, I won't say much here other than often times you're going to get the most "extreme" sounding wording possible so that you "perk up" or take notice. I mean it is a form of advertising, right? So from that perspective it makes sense. But personally I like to stick to the information that is going to present the most accurate picture of what one would expect to see regarding a weather forecast, like focusing on the overall weather, making a note that a mainly very nice day might be interrupted by a brief passing shower or thunderstorm, not "thunderstorms expected" as the only headline, making it sound like a "bad" day or a "washout". Wording like that will often make somebody cancel plans that will actually go off without a hitch, or a need maybe to have a back-up plan, just in case, that you probably end up never needing to use, but better to have and not need than need and not have.
How does this relate to this update? I just wanted to use the forecast for today and Monday as an example. If you click the link I provide to get to my blog, you will read about the reasons I have forecast the chance of a shower or thunderstorm later today mainly in southern NH and northern MA, and again Monday afternoon mainly closer to the New England South Coast. I could word that something like this...
"Thunderstorms may develop later today and again Monday"
..and while this is correct terminology, it's also somewhat misleading. The implication is that everybody has a decent chance to see thunderstorms later today through Monday. Oh no, a rainy stretch!
But no, and making the assumption that my forecast is going to be fairly accurate, most of you living in the Woods Hill Weather forecast area will see no rain whatsoever today or Monday, and those that do see it will see it for a very small percentage of the 48 hours that make up those 2 days, probably under an hour total. That's still about 47 hours of dry time. Yes you're not awake for all of it, and you may be inside for a lot of it too, but my point here is that wording is very important when presenting quick weather updates / headlines.
Similarly, when using weather apps, which I often discourage, you have to be very careful about icons that pop up on the screen. A thunderstorm icon hardly ever means the entire day is going to be presenting you with torrents of rain and booming thunder. Most often that's going to be the exception with much of the time it not doing that. Maybe I'll dive more into the weather app issue another time. For now, I congratulate you on making it through this editorial, so I present you with the link to today's blog update, which highlights the slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm in southern NH and northern MA later today, and a few afternoon showers / storms possible to the south tomorrow, but largely rain-free, nice summertime weather. See? That wasn't so bad now, was it? ;)
Sunday July 21 2024 Forecast (7:35AM) July 21, 2024 Woods Hill Weather 2 Comments DAYS 1-5 (JULY 21-25) A weak area of high pressure slips to our south today as a weak cold front drops down from northern New England. I’ve debated with my forecasting self all week whether or not this front will “...
