Korean Job Discussion Forums

[xCustomx]

A few days ago, meteorologists predicted that it would snow about 3-9cm on Sunday night. There wasn't any snow of course.

Then, they predicted it would be clear and sunny for the next week. It's been snowing for the last couple of hours now in Bundang.

I'm not complaining about just today, but aren't Korean meteorologists way off when it comes to predicting the weather? I thought that the general public had launched a complaint last year or in 2006 due to their inability to make accurate predictions.

[pkang0202]

Weathermen anywhere can't predict snow.

Back home in Richmond, it was real bad. They would forecast snow, no snow would come, and they made elaborate excuses like:

It did snow, it just evaporated before it hit the ground.

The snow turned into Rain in the upper atmosphere.

The heat from the city melted the snow into rain.


If it snows, it snows. Don't trust the weather forecasters.

[samd]

I think Korean weather predictions are usually spot on actually, much more so than home. I check the weather on Naver in the morning, and rarely carry an umbrella in vain.

[aka Dave]

I took an atmospheric science class at Ucla (I'm no expert, this was a general requirement). One of the first questions of students was "why do weather forecasts suck?"

My prof explained like this: take a cubic yard of air. There are millions and millions of molecules interacting with other within that block of air. Then think about the atmosphere, the thousands miles of airspace we have, etc. Trying to predict what these molecules will do in the larger atmosphere is very, very difficult, because of the complexity of the system. And we're constantly changing the system with all the emissions of various chemicals, that can affect weather/climage.

I'm sure left a lot out. But I believe the gist of his point, is weather and climate are hugely complex and thus difficult to predict.

[xCustomx]

I'm not saying it's easy...but with all the doppler equipment and other modern scientific tools, you'd think they could be a little more accurate. Like I said above, I thought that Korean citizens had launched a complaint against some group because the weather predictions were waaaaay off.

[xCustomx]

hahaha...i just found this on the Koreatimes site:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/12/115_36556.html

Heavy snowfall in Gangwon Province: Citizens walk past vehicles buried in snow on the street of Gangneung City, Gangwon Province, Monday. Hundreds of schools were closed due to abrupt heavy snowfall that swept the province overnight. The weather office failed to forecast the fall of heavy snow in the region and belatedly issued a warning the following morning.

[DrOctagon]

Wunderground.com is fairly accurate. What is your source?

[Real Reality]

Weather agency facing storm of criticism
By Kang Chan-su, JoongAng Daily (July 30, 2008)
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2892984

[teachteach]

Wunderground is the most accurate because as far as I know it uses the same equipment and forecasting techniques they use for the airport.

[DC in Suwon]

[sojourner1]

They don't have a crystal ball.