How Accurate are Weather Forecasts?

Have you ever watched a weather report to determine if you will be able to do an outside activity? Whether you regularly watch the nightly weather report or just check the weather report occasionally you may have wondered just exactly how accurate it is. You are not alone as millions of other Americans regularly wonder if their local meteorologist is correct with his or her weather prediction.

Since meteorologists are trained experts in the field of weather you would expect your local weather report to be accurate right? Well have you ever compared multiple weather reports from different stations? It does not always happen, but sometimes two or three different television stations can have completely different weather forecasts.

What makes two or three different meteorologists come up with two or three different weather forecasts? There are a lot of answers to that question. There are many reasons why different meteorologists may produce different weather forecasts; however, one of the most common reasons may have to do with their education or experience.

To become a meteorologists an individual has to obtain an associates or bachelors degree in college. The majority of employers require that a meteorologist have at least a bachelors degree because that means that they typically have more training and experience in the flied. There are thousands of different colleges around the country that teach meteorology.

With thousands of different colleges and college professors teaching meteorology it is likely that some students may be taught one aspect of weather while another student from another school may not be taught it. While the majority of colleges teach meteorology the same way it is possible for one meteorologist to come out of college more educated than another.

In addition to the amount of training and meteorology experience, meteorologists may have varying weather forecasts because of the equipment that they are using. Many meteorologists rely on computerized weather forecasting systems to determine what the weather will be like. There are a number of different system variations which could allow for different weather machines to predict different weather forecast.

A large number of computerized weather forecasts are accurate; however, it is often difficult to predict exactly what the weather will do. There are many hurricanes or tornado producing storms that do not follow the exact path of a weather computer. It is possible for a storm system to change its course even though a computer weather system expected it to go another way.

At the time of the nightly weather forecast it may be looking like a snow storm will hit your area, but in a matter of minutes that storm could change directions. This is why it is possible for a weather forecast to be inaccurate; however, this occurrence is something that rarely happens. As you are likely to know the majority of the time your local weather forecast is accurate.

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.