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Weather Talk: 'Gut feelings' about what's in store

Since this warm spell began, many people have asked me about "gut feelings" (theirs or mine), as to how much winter weather remains. The premise being that a number of people "have a feeling" we have seen the last of snow and cold. A good weather...

John Wheeler

Since this warm spell began, many people have asked me about "gut feelings" (theirs or mine), as to how much winter weather remains.

The premise being that a number of people "have a feeling" we have seen the last of snow and cold. A good weather forecaster does not use "gut feelings" to make a forecast because such a premonition would be baseless.

Colder weather and even snowstorms could happen with a change in the Jet Stream. The physics models we use to make our seven-day-forecasts actually run out to more than two weeks. It's just that they are terrible at such a range.

Other forecasting tools, such as circulation anomalies, are sending mixed signals as they often do in spring.

So this meteorologist is comfortable saying any spring/summer forecast is as good as anyone's gut feeling, which is essentially worthless. So enjoy the mild weekend weather. It might last but it might not.

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