BREAKING: Sometimes Meteorologists Are Wrong

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Mar 22, 2012 9:00PM

This is Oak Street Beach in March 2012. Tipping Point Photo

Last fall AccuWeather meteorologists predicted Chicago would have a terrible, cold, snowy winter. One meteorologist went so far as to say, "People in Chicago are going to want to move after this winter." We mocked their prediction with our post, "BREAKING: Chicago Will Have Cold, Snowy Winter Just Like Every Year Before."

They say this every year. Last year AccuWeather predicted a cold and wet winter for Chicago. And it was. You know why? Because it's the most accurate weather prediction they can come up with: You're going to hate Chicago in the wintertime.

It turns out we both were wrong. Today is supposed to be the last day of this historic winter heat wave that smashed previous records. We celebrated the warmest St. Patrick's Day in 141 years. Now AccuWeather is eating crow saying, "It was not exactly the best forecast." Tribune writes:

Specifically, AccuWeather said we were in for a fifth consecutive winter of above average snowfall, somewhere between 50 and 58 inches. In reality, just 19.8 inches of the white stuff have fallen, according to WGN chief meteorologist Tom Skilling, not only well below AccuWeather's prediction, but also 14.3 inches below the yearly average.

AccuWeather called for brutally cold temperatures for December and January, and slightly milder mercury in March. Nope. The period of December through February — known as meteorological winter — ran 6.4 degrees above average.

AccuWeather.com news director Henry Margusity offered up a theory about tsunami debris causing the unseasonable warmth here, but, "The weather pattern we're in right now has every meteorologist baffled."

We're reminded of Lewis Black's bit about the weather and Al Roker from back in 1998. "What does the word meteorologist mean in English? It means liar."