Chicagoist isn’t a big fan of getting up earlier than we have to, so we tend to watch the weather at night. We don’t like to wake up with a surprise blizzard going on outside our window. And we’re one of those nerds who decides what we’re going to wear the night before. But we realize that we only represent a portion of the population with our beliefs, so for this week’s version of the weather experiment, we decided to use a morning forecaster.
Fox’s Tammie Souza is not only the first morning meteorologist but also the first woman to be a part of the Chicagoist weather experiment. While Chicagoist is wary of all things Fox, we tried to go into week three with an open mind, with the stipulation that if we heard anything about how global warming is a hoax, we’d throw our snow boots through the T.V. That’s just how we roll.
Find out if our television stayed intact after the jump.
Monday: Souza, like most meteorologists, was reporting Monday to have the coldest temperatures in 10 years. She said there would be a wind chill between –20 and –30 (as if you can really tell a difference) and a high of 2 degrees. But hey, it’s going to be sunny! After we bundled up as much as possible and began our morning walk, we only made it a couple of blocks before the moisture on our sunglasses, which occurred as a result of us breathing into our scarf, froze into little beads. We watched the high actually climb to 8, but the wind chill didn’t really budge. So, so cold.
Tuesday: Tammie predicted a high of 10 today and snow, with a winter weather advisory for the area. The snow that still remains on the ground today is a reminder that Tuesday was indeed a snowy day. Although, it felt slightly lower than 10 degrees for most of the day.
Wednesday: This day we were prepared for yet another morning of wind chills well below 0 in the morning with a deceivingly bright and sunny sky. Souza predicted a high of 12-15 degrees, which sounded really, really warm after the past couple of days. When we stopped in Currency Exchange in the morning, a man called it a “heat wave.” It was 15 degrees at noon, and by 3 p.m. it felt even warmer. Hell, it could have been a whopping 20.
Thursday: We were getting really tired of these wind chill advisories, which Tammie was once again warning us about this morning. She said the wind chill would be below 0 again, with an actual high of 13. It would be sunny and bright all day with winds of around 10-15 mph. Earlier in the day it didn’t feel deathly cold, but as the day wore on, we began to lose feeling in our feet and realized Souza was right about that whole wind chill thing.
Friday: Surprise! The forecast was for yet another below-zero wind chill day, with a high around 15 degrees. And that sun isn’t really helping things feel warmer. The high was closer to 12 today, which had virtually no effect on our outerwear choices.
Third week’s conclusion: Souza’s predicted highs were pretty right on all week, and the fact that she was obsessed with wind chill factors was definitely a good thing on a week where we saw –20 wind chills more than once. She is at an advantage when compared to an evening forecaster, though, because she reports her weather the day it will actually occur. However, we were surprised that Souza was so focused on temperatures and paid very little mention to other weather factors such as precipitation, cloud coverage or wind speeds.
We plan to track a few more Chicago meteorologists as part of this experiment in addition to a few other non-television weather sources. Who always leaves you out in the cold without a coat? Who or what would you like to see us use as a weather source in the weeks to come?
Souza photo (from her NBC days) via Desipio. "Footprint" photo via runjenrun01.
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Man...the things I pay attention to. I agree with your results but the thing that caught my eye was her picture. Doesn't she have one from FOX yet? I know...too much time on my hands but it's my day off....
For whatever reason, I was unable to find a usable photo of her on FOX. I will make a clarification in the post now.
I'd be interested in what "bundling up" is - how many layers, types of fabric, or if you use one of those coats that says, "Good for temps 0 - 32º"
Sarah, if you don't use WGN's Paul Konrad then you are dead to me.
He's dreamy. I'd almost leave Scott for him. Almost.
Yes! By all means use the disrespected Paul Konrad or his buddy Jim.
i like paul a lot. don't like jim. i wouldn't exactly call paul 'dreamy' though.. his hair's got too much of that 'koosh ball' factor.
If you're interested in a very geeky article about determining accuracy of weather forecasts, check out the article on OmniNerd. The author has a very rigorous methodology for calculating accuracy of high and low temps. It doesn't evaluate the more subjective criteria for weather (rain, sun, wind, etc.), but it's interesting. Then again, by including a link to a website titled, OmniNerd, I'm already saying something about my personality.
Cathi,
That's a really good question. In the winter, I typically wear a thin shirt underneath a sweater or otherwise thicker, long-sleeved shirt, with a down-filled coat, hat, scarf and gloves (I hate mittens!) on the outside. And I almost always wear boots, whether I'm wearing pants or not.
And Kurt, this post is pretty much exclusively for weather nerds, so no need to be self-conscious! Thanks for the link.
when we were going through that spell, i was wearing the following (and getting looks): long johns under pants -- long sleeves under a sweater, sometimes two layers. three scarves (two as underlayers, one for the face), one, sometimes two hats, boots and gloves under mittens.
i hate death inducing cold. well, i hate all cold, but especially that kind.
I'll take back breaking cold over surface of the sun heat. With cold you can always bundle up. In heat, there's a limit to how much clothing you can legally remove.
Plus air conditioning is more expensive than heat... at least for me.
I'm from Oklahoma, and the winters there are pretty mild. My gas bills in college (for similarly sized apartments) were a FRACTION of the cost of my current bill. This is an additional shock to me, since this is my 6th apartment I've had since living here and the first one that didn't have forced (read: free for me) heat. So, what I'm saying here is, I prefer summer and the bills that come with it.
I think she has a new picture at FOX. Followed her there from the peacock where she covered days and nights and was pretty accurate. Never left me in the cold with a mini skirt. She usually hammers away at whatever is important. Rain, clouds, whatever. Maybe the week you watched cold was the big story. BTW you can save the boot and the TV since she believes in Global Warming. Saw her story about Lake Michigan and Global Warming last week on one of the night news shows. How about following Ed Curran? He cracks me up. Mike Caplan is a cutie too.