WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Never mind fancy computers, satellites and Doppler radar. Most people have limited faith that meteorologists can accurately forecast the weather.
Four in 10 say they have made plans in the past month based on a weather forecast that turned out to be wrong, according to an AP-Ipsos poll. Still, most people closely follow the weather, mainly on television.
About a third say they think the weather forecasts in their area are accurate, but half say just "somewhat accurate," and the remainder say the forecasts are off the mark.
[snip]
Almost two-thirds said they had checked the weather forecast on the day they were surveyed.
Television was, by far, the most popular source of weather information (used by seven in 10 who checked a forecast), followed by the Internet, newspapers and radio.
I've actually noticed weather forecasts have become much more, well, mushy in recent years. That is, they tend to want to cover all possibilities. If you look at Weather.com, The Weather Channel's web site, their forecasts almost always include the possibility of rain (10% to 20% chance on days it's almost certainly not going to rain). I don't know if they are afraid of being sued or just always want to be correct no matter what happens.
Here's my forecast for most of the rest of the year:
Partly to mostly cloudy with a possibility of precipitation and temperatures near normal.
I'll bet I'm 90% accurate.
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