Now that winter is here, KELOLAND Meteorologists are spending a lot of time tracking any possible winter storms.

And tracking storms is something that meteorologists have been doing for a long time. In this week’s Flashback Friday, we take a look at how they were making winter forecasts in 1982.

“Snow with accumulations of up to 3″ are possible. Snow and windy later this afternoon and skies becoming clear to partly cloudy into tonight.”
That was the forecast heard most of the day.
The word came from the weather service.
TV and radio stations and newspapers got the message out.
So as the snow continued to fall, the meteorologists wondered whether they would be right.
To determine a forecast, a lot of information is considered.
Balloons are sent aloft to determine wind conditions.
Satellite photographs are analyzed and radar projections are viewed with an eye toward what sort of weather is moving in which direction.
The latest technique comes with the addition of computer assistance.
“We’ve become very dependent on the computer. The computer does a good job. We speak to the computer almost as if it was a person but it’s not. It’s just a machine that is able to do a lot of computations very fast and does what we tell it.”
He says that it is then up to the forecasters to interpret what the computer offers.
In fact, there is even a bit of rivalry: man versus computer, Who can make the most accurate predictions?
The computer even rates each forecaster.
“When we make our forecasts we punch up a computer card for it that puts in our values and the values of the computer. Every 6 months or so they send back the score sheet for us.”
“How do you come out?”
“We do pretty good!”
 The service claims accuracy of about 90 to 95%, but then it is only the incorrect forecast that people remember.