Jan 24, 2019 3 min read

Just like snowflakes, every weather forecast of last weekend’s phantom winter storm was special and unique in its own little way.

When exactly would the storm strike? Will the freeze line travel south of Allegheny County? Would the northern counties get more than 18 inches of powdery white snow?

In the end, those predictions proved to be wrong. All of them.

From the beginning of last week, it was clear that there was quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding the forecast because of a variety of weather factors and computer models showing many different possible outcomes. Most meteorologists said just that in their forecasts and waited until Thursday to offer their predictions on the amount of snow that would fall in different regions.

Then the forecast kept changing. And changing. And changing, until steady rain fell over most of Western Pennsylvania as warmer temperatures moved into the region Saturday.

It goes without saying that meteorologists have an incredibly difficult job to do. Trying to predict unpredictable weather patterns is as old as human civilization itself.

We’re spoiled now with the weather forecast at our fingertips with the help of cellphone apps that offer hourly temperatures and minute-by-minute radar maps showing incoming storms. We’ve come a long way from the weatherman tossing a few magnetic sunshine decals onto a map to tell us what to expect later in the day.

And it’s OK when meteorologists are wrong about their forecasts. For the most part, they do a superb job predicting the weather.

What isn’t right is the drumbeat of television news reports and social media posts that seem to be designed to scare viewers. Why else would one television station proclaim to have a “Severe Weather Center” when the forecast calls for a sunny day?

It’s one thing to make sure people are prepared. It’s a totally different thing to create panic. And that seems to be what happened in the days leading up to Saturday as television news aired wall-to-wall coverage of the impending storm.

WPXI-TV, for example, pre-empted NBC’s TODAY Show on Sunday morning to air extended coverage of what was left of the winter storm, which wasn’t much. The station sent reporters up to Lawrence County for live broadcasts on the couple of inches of snow that fell there, far from the cataclysmic forecast its meteorologists were pumping out just a few days earlier.

The ice that the storm created Sunday and Monday was a totally different story and one that rightfully received quite a bit of attention, as it caused dangerous driving conditions. But a few inches of snow in Pennsylvania isn’t uncommon, and it shouldn’t be treated as a major event.

As more winter weather approaches our area this weekend, people will have to decide for themselves whether to trust the forecast. But at the very least, maybe the local television stations can tone down their broadcasts without wall-to-wall coverage that seems to create more confusion than clarity.