A trip to Lynnhaven Inlet had the weather chasing us back to the dock. But that was OK, we were prepared.
Several days ago, the National Weather Service Impact Weather Briefing from Wakefield painted a potentially bad picture for last Thursday night.
Rain – heavy at times – potential flooding, high tides, strong and possibly damaging wind, hail, even the chance for tornadoes.
The Wakefield office holds these briefings every Monday and Thursday morning unless there are approaching events like hurricanes.
At these briefings, media and other meteorologists are allowed to ask questions and join the conversation.
The NWS sends the results to agencies, news organizations, and state and local governments to broadcast on social media and other publications and online sites.
The goal is to keep the general public better informed about the potential for extreme conditions – something we seem to be seeing more and more these days.
That’s part of the reason the National Hurricane Center is calling for a more active and dangerous Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Forecasters called for Thursday night to be strong in several areas of the region, but more hit and miss than it possibly could be. They were spot on and hopefully you live in one of the miss areas instead of one of the hit zones.
The rest of the presentation dealt with what is being forecast to be beautiful, more seasonable weather through the middle of the week.
Most television and radio stations, newspapers and social media apps get the same NWS forecasts to make their predictions.
The smart ones stick with the information provided by the pros. Unfortunately, too many of them like to toy with the info to give the appearance that they’re the experts. More often than not, this method results in bad information going out to those who usually get left unprepared.
Please understand, it’s not all of the information stations and papers – just a large and growing number of them.
Then there’s the situation where even the best meteorologists get it a little wrong from time to time.
But over my years of writing about the weather for the paper’s news and fishing sections, the NWS information was what I went with.
With the NWS, you also can take a class so that you can report conditions during nasty weather patterns. Buy a certified rain water measuring tube so you can let them know how much a specific area got.
And short visits to the NWS website usually end up being a little longer, as there is a fascinating collection of information and history on a variety of things.
In fact, rural areas outside cities are where the agency can use the most help in reporting conditions.
Part of the point here is that our region is one that is more abused by weather than most others. We are surrounded by water and a central area where battling frontal systems collide.
You know the old saying in these parts: “if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.”
But more seriously, especially for boaters and hunters, learning how the weather works, being prepared for what’s probably coming, and spending time on the NWS website enhancing your knowledge is a great idea.
Let’s face it, there are an awful lot of weatherman wanna-be folks out there. So paying attention to the pros is the best way to go.
To read more of my work, go to: leetollliveroutdoors.com
