Fence Corner in the Snow / Winter Weather - Or Not

Burnsland

2011-01-25

Fence Corner in the Snow

When it is snowing and they skies are all gray, it looks really cold. Even in pictures. After the snow is over and the sky turns blue again, it adds a whole different color to pictures. Although they still look cold.

Here is a view of one of the corners in our horse pasture fence, with the trees behind it covered in snow as the bright blue sky dominates overhead. And yes, while we were out there, we were cold.

Photo location: Our house, Williston, Tennessee
A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Winter Weather - Or Not

The weather professionals are saying we could get some more snow this evening. Or we could not. They can’t be certain either way, because their computer models are all different. Maybe. Maybe not.

I do wonder how they predicted the weather back in the old days before there were such fancy things as computer models and Doppler radar. And a whole cable channel devoted just to the weather. As best I remember, and as far back as I can remember, the weather forecasts back then weren’t much less accurate than they are now. It seems to me that all that modern technology helps us to know better what is going on right now. But as for predicting the future, it still isn’t so great.

At times, I feel sorry for the weather forecasters. Because as soon as they get it wrong, they are sure to hear about it. I’m sure they get calls and emails at the station. But those are probably easier to ignore than the little old lady in front of you at the Wal-Mart checkout line. Not quite so easy to hit the delete button when Granny is giving you a public run-down of all your weather mistakes.

And then on the other hand, I wonder what it is like sometimes to have a job where inaccuracy is tolerated to some degree. When was the last time you heard a weatherman losing his job because he was wrong about the weather? After all, it really is a given that they will be wrong at least some of the time.

So I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction for tonight’s weather: We will get 6" of snow all around the area. Or we won’t. And if we do, or if we don’t, you can’t say I didn’t tell you so.

I would imagine that God gets quite a chuckle out of our attempts to figure out His weather patterns.