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Kitchen Table Kibitzing November 12, 2023 [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-11-12

Weather or not. If this is tl;dr scroll to bottom for cat picture.

A number of people I know are dismissive of weather reports, saying “Oh, they’re never right.” This irritates me. Discussions about weather are the most prevalent topic of conversation (outside of seniors discussing various bodily malfunctions). Originally, gods controlled the weather, so there was no use in trying to predict their arbitrary vagaries. Later, certain patterns were observed. Jesus, in Mathew 16, said: "When it is evening, you say, `It will be fair weather; for the sky is red. ' [3] And in the morning, `It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening”.

Every civilization came up with their own methods, some accurate, some not so much. I learned a lot from the Wiki Weather Forecasting article. The telegraph changed everything. ] By the late 1840s, the telegraph allowed reports of weather conditions from a wide area to be received almost instantaneously, This allowed forecasts to be made from knowledge of weather conditions further upwind.

Practical use of numerical weather prediction began in 1955,[26] spurred by the development of programmable electronic computers. Weather models allow for accurate forecasting, but perfection is impossible unless the movement of every particle could be known. Speedy computers are approaching this. The supercomputing capacity supporting NOAA's new operational prediction and research enables about 42 quadrillion operations per second. This faster computing allows NOAA to run more complex forecast models, while increased storage space enables more data to be used and assimilated into the system.

Forecasts are ubiquitous, on TV, your phone, newspapers, your computer. They are interesting to average folks, but vital for air travel, agriculture, utilities. forestry, military, trucking, etc. Many of us depend on the NWS. The National Weather Service is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the purposes of protection, safety, and general information.

But as sure as the sun rises (actually earth rotates) repubs want to privatize and monetize weather forecasting. There are already specialty forecasts for a price to certain industries, but there has been a push to privatize the NWS, just they want to privatize the Postal Service. More money for them; less service for us.

Where do you get your forecasts? Are they accurate always? Most of the time? How vital are weather forecasts to your quotidian life? Or vacation life?

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I mentioned that our next door neighbor just got a kitten. She brought it over and we enjoyed her immensely. Just a ball of the softest fur, curious and fairly well behaved. Here she is:

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