That title is so TEEVEE: “Stay tuned for ‘Jeff’s’ forecast at 11 PM (6 hours from the title announcement) to find out.” So silly. Yet, when I look deep inside myself, I find I wouldn’t mind saying things like that if was making a LOT of money to say things like that, like those TEEVEE people do. TEEVEE people making a LOT of money, its unbelievable really, how much they make, and pointing that out is kind of a theme here. Always has been, and its not just because I am not making any money myself, though it might be.
For vocational guidance purposes, for the reader considering a career in meteorology, I introduce the following graphic:
This graphic1 was based on a 1980s story in the San Francisco Chronicle about two TEEVEE meteorologists for KGO. The main guy made $400,000, and the weekend guy they had just pinched from another station for fill in and weekends, $225,000! It was forwarded to me by my mom who apparently wanted to make me feel bad about being in research at the University of Washington.
Oh, yeah, the answer to the title question?
Yes.
Let us begin and end our discussion with spaghetti:
You can see a big trough is guaranteed here this day (and will be affecting us the day before, March 30th). Look at how the red lines cluster over northern Mexico. That means it a very confident forecast, say compared with that just east of the Hawaiian Islands.
Then, WAY out there…..
Another moderately confident rain from a trough is foretold for April 5-6th. This trough has a trajectory more or less straight out of the Pacific, and would have more tropical air in it compared with the one shown here in spaghetti.
The End.
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1Like all political cartoons, a certain liberty has been taken with the facts. Today you would likely have to have a DEGREE in meteorology to even work at a TEEVEE station in Pumpkin Corners, Nebraska.
An example of taking liberties with facts for humor is this classic insight into President Reagan’s brain from former University of Washington student, and Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist, David Horsey: