Weather Humor?

This evening before I went running I checked the weather. I’ve gotten into the habit of doing this now that we’re in thunderstorm season; I have no problem running in the rain, but I draw the line at running in lightning. Since my routine check showed that the skies would stay clear for the duration of my run, I headed out without worrying all that much.

What the widget said when I checked it five minutes ago.

As I started the third mile of my run, it started raining. I’d been hoping to do at least four miles, but I cut my run short because I didn’t want to get caught in a thunderstorm. Not too long after I got home, I heard thunder. At least I made the right decision.

I’m still confused, though, about the weather forecast. Weather.com explicitly stated in a little sidebar widget that I should “expect dry conditions over the next six hours”. I should have known better than to trust that stupid thing, but for some reason, I believed it and confidently threw on a white t-shirt and light gray sports bra and headed out the door. Boy did I regret that move half an hour later.

I’ve been misled by that “expect dry conditions” message so many times that this evening when I got in, it occurred to me that it must be a joke. It probably never changes, and the Weather Channel people just put it there to screw with your head! It’s some sort of commentary on how dependent we’ve become on our technology and computers and apps and widgets, when we could just look out the window or step outside to see what the weather’s like! It’s meteorological humor, right? It has to be! But then when I checked it again recently, the message was entirely different, as the image above shows.

So, it’s not a joke. It’s just…an inability to provide accurate information on what the weather is going to be like. You’ve been warned! And remember: don’t wear a white shirt unless you are 100% sure you won’t get stuck in the rain.