Don’t Mock the Meteorologist

Posted by on 29 Aug 2011 | 4 comments

Meteorologists all across the country are having questions today regarding the perceived over-hyping of Hurricane Irene. Leaving aside the discussion about whether or not Irene was over-hyped, and who might actually be to blame (spoiler-alert: It’s not the meteorologists…), comedian Dean Obeidallah offers a defense of meteorologists in his opinion piece titled “Don’t Mock the Weatherguy”

In short, Mr. Obeidallah offers this warning, “If we continue to mock these heroic weatherpeople who try to make our lives in a challenging world a little better, then don’t be surprised when, one day, we hear them collectively announce, ‘Enough!’” and leave the population “…like cavemen to predict weather based on the sounds of insects and our swollen feet.”

  • http://www.mikesmithenterprises.com Mike Smith
  • http://www.patricktmarsh.com pmarshwx

    Thanks, Mike! I’ve been keeping up with your posts over the past few days and it certainly appears that your posts regarding Irene and how the weather enterprise as a whole handled the forecasts are gaining quite a bit of traction! Thanks for being an eloquent defender of our science!

  • jimmyc

    How did this comedian know our secret about using insect sounds to predict the weather? Dammit. I already threw out the old entrails (just getting too damn dry around here) in favor of this new insect technology. Oh well. back to those “equations” and “computers”.

  • http://www.patricktmarsh.com pmarshwx

    I never realized how quickly insects learn calculus. They must be really smart to solve all those complex equations that quickly!