There’s a weatherman on AM 750 in Atlanta who has what he calls the Mellish Meter, its an arbitrary scale of how good the weather is going to be on a given day. The problem is, what he thinks is great weather is not necessarily what I think is great weather. Yesterday was a day that most people would have called ugly weather, low clouds, steady light rain with occasional heavy bursts, but I happen to love days like that. It was in fact a perfect 10 in my book. I also happen to love days when there is not a cloud to be seen and the sky is a crisp blue. Hence, my frustration with weathermen who inject there opinions into forecasts. It would be the same as a business reporter saying “It’s a great day if you own XYZ stock” it’s a pretty lousy day if you just sold XYZ stock, so just report the facts. If it’s going to be a rainy day just say so.
And for anyone who might say that they do it to be interesting, listen to a Kirk Mellish Forecast just once. He’s anything but interesting.
I’ve heard Kirk talking to Scott Slade about golf more than once. To Kirk a 10 on the Melish meter is probably not too cold that you need a bulky jacket but not so hot that you sweat, no clouds for good ball visiblity and zero wind so he can work on his slice without having to adjust. As long as you realize where Kirk’s priorities are and adjust accordingly I don’t really have a problem with the Melish meter. But I do agree that it’s biased to what he enjoys doing outside.
I went backpacking Saturday and summitted Springer mountian in the fog and drizzle. I love the smell of wet rhotodendrens so I’d have to give Saturday a 10 on my meter even though Kirk would have called it a zero.
My 3 year old considers the perfect weather to be rainy enough for lots of puddles but without thunder and lightning. And warm enough that mom will let her play in the rain.