Lessons from the storm – letter

So what if the storm from last weekend didn't turn out to be the biggest storm to hit SJI since the Columbus Day 1962 blow-out? I still disagree with the quote in the Journal (10/19/16, p. 16) by weather expert Cliff Mass that his profession "has to stop providing the worst case" scenario for a storm. I would rather know what the worst possibilities of a storm system could be, than to be lulled into a sense of complacency and inattention with "full probablistic guidance."

So what if the storm from last weekend didn’t turn out to be the biggest storm to hit SJI since the Columbus Day 1962 blow-out? I still disagree with the quote in the Journal (10/19/16, p. 16) by weather expert Cliff Mass that his profession “has to stop providing the worst case” scenario for a storm. I would rather know what the worst possibilities of a storm system could be, than to be lulled into a sense of complacency and inattention with “full probablistic guidance.”

The way it turned out, people prepared themselves for the worst and were grateful when it didn’t happen. If it had been the other way around — predictions of a major storm, but nothing about possibility of hurricane force winds — and it did turn out badly, we would have opened ourselves to massive and avoidable damage.

Fielding M. McGehee III

Friday Harbor