IsabelaWeather wrote:Pipelines182 wrote:wx98 wrote:In my experience as a meteorologist, probabilistic messaging and extra statements of uncertainty just confuse the general public. All they want to know is where, when, and how strong. When you start talking “if this, then that, but if not, then this when this happens” you lose people immediately.
We already use percentages for tornadoes, heck we even do for rain. While you do run into the issue where people complain about it raining/not raining when it was "forecast to rain" that doesn't stop us from using percentages because that's the best way to forecast those events. What's worse, causing some confusion or misleading the public? Because the current messaging is the latter.
I think the cone is sufficient. The problem is the average normie will always think the forecast is wrong. If you have a cat 5 bearing down on the coast like Beryl, and the Hurricane winds extend out 20 miles, the majority of people in a given warning or percentage area will be wrong. You could have a storm coming in to miami and the at the last minute it wobbles north and hit west palm beach miami would miss the eyewall where the really bad weather is. Everyone in miami would get complacent because the weathermen were wrong, even though they werent.
Hurricanes are so fickle, they are very large but also in a way very small and its hard to forecast a specific person's weather.
Ive seen people complain because it was "supposed to rain" when it rained over the entire CWA except a small part over a bunch of people, and they all said the weatherman was wrong, its the unreasonable expectations of the general public, the NHC does an amazing job forecasting these storms. Intensity is the hardest part, there is no way NHC should have put out a cat 5 in the initial cone.
Take 2 storms with the same conditions, one might blow up like beryl, one might struggle for some reason. Can't really forecast that.
If the normies always think the forecast is wrong, then why would it hurt to add some additional information? The NHC is already going to issue a new forecast graphic this year with far more information than the old one. They know their forecast graphic is lacking in information and they're trying to improve it, thankfully.
I'm not suggesting they put a "Cat 5" in the cone, that would be irresponsible, I'm saying they add something like "10% probability of rapid intensification well beyond forecast strength" or even something as simple as "10% risk of rapid intensification". That's not going to freak people out and cause a panic, it's also clear they aren't forecasting "a cat 5" but at least it gets something on the graphic that lets people know that there's a real risk the storm could be far stronger than forecast. The main issue for me is the forecast for two storms with DIFFERENT conditions will look like the same forecast if they're both forecast to hit at the same intensity. A storm traveling over cooler water/some shear should not have the same forecast graphic as one traveling over a bathtub with no shear, even if both are predicted to make landfall at the same intensity. Everyone here knows what can happen in just 48 hours with perfect conditions, we just saw a TD turn into a Cat 4 in less time than that, the normies need to know that too and that's on the NHC to figure out how to get that message to them.