Good for You, Bad for Me
Good for You, Bad for Me
High pressure builds in from the west today, giving us a weekend of full of sunny weather. Temperatures will be slightly above normal with highs in the upper 60s°F and lows around 50°F. And while you are outside enjoying yourself this weekend (or maybe not if you have midterms and psets), meteorologists like me have very little to do.
Fortunately for those of us who love weather forecasting, a national forecasting contest called the Wx Challenge (“wx” is meteorologist lingo for weather) allows us to compete in this unusual sport. Every Monday through Thursday evening during the school year, over a thousand faculty, staff, grad students, and undergrads throughout the country enter a numerical forecast for the high temperature, low temperature, highest sustained wind speed, and precipitation for the following day for a given city, which changes every two weeks (for example, the last two weeks the city was Jacksonville, FL). The farther you are from the actual measurements, the more points you get, and whoever has the lowest amount of points wins. Trophies are awarded to the winning individuals as well as the winning teams.
I’m proud to say that MIT has come in first place six out of the past seven years, but not without a fight from our main competitors, Mississippi State University and San Jose State University.
Extended Forecast
Tonight: Clear, Low 50°F (10°C).
Tomorrow: Sunny, High 64°F (18°C).
Tomorrow Night: Clear, Low 49°F (9°C).
Sunday: You guessed it: sunny. High 67°F (19°C).