Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Off A Little...

I checked my voicemail this evening and I had twelve messages. I was a little surprised that I did not have more considering we had sleet, snow, and freezing rain today. To my surprise, none of them were mean or negative! It made me very happy to call Region 8 home! :)

Now, let me first say that the forecast was off a little, but it was not a completely busted forecast. Last week, the data hinted at the chance of Wintry Weather for Today. In fact here is a blog post that I typed up LAST Wednesday:

Blog post from January 9th.

In that blog post, I mentioned that we could have Sleet or Ice today. As time went on, it started to look like the storm would barely clip us to the South. Even this morning, the NWS only had 4 counties in Region 8 under a Winter Weather Advisory and they are the 4 most southeast counties in our viewing area.

Once the sleet started to cover the streets in Little Rock around 9:30 am, I started to get concerned. Even though we had relatively dry air in place across Region 8, the precipitation continued its northward push. As I mentioned at the 5:00 Newscast, sometimes we forecast...and God laughs. I can humbly say that on behalf of the team, we're sorry if the sleet and snow caught you off guard today.

In recent years, we have had a great record on forecasting winter weather and severe weather. There will be times when we miss the forecast and I feel this was one of those times.

Back on the horse now! This stuff will melt away tomorrow and  we'll learn from this little wintry event and be more prepared next time.

Have a good night,
Ryan


11 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for always trying your best to keep us safe!

Pam said...

Ryan, you all do a great job! Thank you for keeping us informed. We are blessed to have you guys keeping an eye on it all for us!

Anonymous said...

It's all good we all survived it an the sun will shine on us tomorrow ! Thank's for all the hard work very late nights you an your team put in to keep us all informed an safe as possible ! Thanks!!

kathy Redmond said...

You have nothing for which to apologize. It was almost noon before NOAA changed from 20% to 60% winter precip. We live the way you & the team keep Region 8 informed.

Ethel said...

Ryan, I enjoy your forecasts. I know that you can't MAKE the weather & you all do your best. Keep up the work. I like snow, but the sleet & freezing rain made a mess. Only wish the sand trucks would have sanded the roads BEFORE they got so slick. Thanks...

Anonymous said...

All you can do Ryan is report what the maps show and what the National Weather Service is showing and telling you. Keep up the good work. Appreciate you all keeping us all safe.

Anonymous said...

Dont be so hard on yourself. You do a great job. Every other storm has been right on forecast.

Keep up the good work.

Cindy Trout said...

Thanks for all of the hard work continuously done by your team. No human can nail a forecast 100% of the time, God may like surprising us! :) You guys were all over the 2006 tornado and although my bro's family lost almost everything, they heeded your warnings and their lives were spared. I am forever grateful and tonight have a happy kiddo too! :)

Bret Palmer said...

Ryan, no need to explain, the weather has been fickle for years. I think nowadays, the forcasts are the most accurate they've ever been. I make day to day decisions on the farm by your forcasts, such as when to plant, or how deep to plant the seed because it's suppose to rain, or not rain. I can tell you that in the past 10 years, there more accurate than ever most of the time. Keep up the good work!!

Charla Hill said...

I could not have said it better myself. A prediction simply states what we think may happen based on the information we have at the time of the presiction. It is not absolute. God has all the power to do as he sees fit. Today he saw it fit to give us some sleet, snow and freezing rain. It definitely reminded me that he is in control of all things!

Anonymous said...

Ryan you do a great job. Nobody is perfect. The weather can be crazy. Like you said you forecast, God laughs. Thanks for all you do.