One Month of Tram Forecasts

[Perry]

I've mentioned this to the newspaper 4 times. They don't care. The average temperature difference between Palm Springs and Tram forecasts was 16 degrees in February. The Long Valley Ranger Station recorded colder temps. I don't have a whole lot of time right now to make another spreadsheet, but I'll do that later in a few days.



Long Valley Ranger Station:
Feb 1: morning/overnight low 10F, daytime high 42F (high recorded on morning of Feb 2)
Feb 2: 15, 46
3 22, 50
4 25, 53
5 27 58
6 28 51
7 31 50
8 26 51
9 28 50
10 27 51
11 31 40
12 24 44
13 18 33
14 20 46
15 28 46
16 26 48
17 28 50
18 29 44
19 22 40
20 16 46
21 23 50
22 33 40
23 12 36
24 14 46
25 30 45
26 35 42
27 24 28
28 10 32 <-- high recorded morning of march 1.

[Foleymo]

Hi Perry,

I work at The Desert Sun and I assure you that they care about this problem, but little can be done. The forecasts for our weather page come from Accuweather, not from The Desert Sun itself. We are at their mercy. Maybe if we get enough hikers together and get them to bother Accuweather, maybe they'll change their ways. It really chaps my hide that the paper has bad information in it. Hopefully it doesn't endanger anyone on the mountain.

Thanks,

Mike Foley

[Perry]

That's right it was Accuweather, not Anything Weather. I contacted them too back in January. They said they would look into it, but nothing changed.

Here's my correspondence with them:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:49:12 -0500
From: "Support" <Support [at] accuweather.com> Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: "Perry Scanlon" <accuweather [at] cactus2clouds.com>
Subject: Re: Forecast Accuracy Feedback Ticket #405924

Thank you for using AccuWeather.com!!

We are sorry that you have encountered this problem. Our technicians
have been notified and are currently working to resolve this issue.

We thank you for your time and patience during this situation and for
calling this problem to our attention.

If you reply to this email, please keep the numeric code in the subject
of your message so that we can respond to you as quickly as possible.
If you have any further questions, comments or concerns, please contact
us at:

AccuWeather Solution Center
webhelp [at] accuweather.com

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Perry Scanlon" <accuweather [ @ ] cactus2clouds.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:30:17 -0000

>From: Scanlon,Perry
>Email: accuweather [at] cactus2clouds.com
>
>
>[DETAILS]
>Your forecasts and some observations have given artificially warm
>temperatures for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. For example, on
>Saturday Jan 13 you predicted a low of 20, reported a low of 15 the
next
>day in The Desert Sun newspaper, but the Long Valley Ranger Station
>recorded -5F as the low for Friday night and Saturday morning. Please

>call the State Park for observations: 951 659-2607
>
>-Perry
>760 808-2205 cell
[....work and landline #'s]

[HikeUp]

Is it possible for the paper to use another source? Based on data such as Perry gathered surely indicates there might be a reason to look into it. Of course any new source should be researched as to its accuracy before switching to it. Sorry that I don't have any specific suggestions regarding what other sources to consider, but just thinking out loud.

[OntarioWeatherService]

Give me a month or so to get patterns right for the area. Obviously accuweather has an automated computer doing very bad temp forecasts.

[halhiker]

Is it possible that weather is for the LOWER tram station? With an elevation about 2500 ft higher than Palm Springs and an average temp. drop of 5 degrees per thousand feet, a temp. difference of 16 degrees makes sense--except for those wishing to actually go up the Tram.

[Foleymo]

HikeUp Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:11 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it possible for the paper to use another source?

Unfortunately, no matter how unreliable Accuweather is, we are forced to keep using them. (Because of contractual obligations, I think.)

halhiker Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:21 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it possible that weather is for the LOWER tram station?

That's an interesting thought. That does seem consistent.

[halhiker]

One thing I do is go the weather.gov. I enter my city and zip to get my forecast. Then on the interactive map I click around until I get a lat/lon reading near where I'm going. It's not perfect but it works pretty well.

Today I got 33.79 -116.65W 8715 ft. 5miles NE of Idyllwild
Temp. 71/59 wind 5-10mph

I used the feedback section to contact them and ask them to add a zip code and lat/lon or UTM search. Who knows, maybe if a lot of people ask for that feature they might add it.

Hal

[OntarioWeatherService]

In-Accuweather has no right to forecast the Southern California terrain and should not be contracted BY ANY SERVICE other than someone that knows the terrain and lives here.
Anyone contracted to them should detach.

[Perry]

Unfortunately, no matter how unreliable Accuweather is, we are forced to keep using them. (Because of contractual obligations, I think.)

I would think that consistently inaccurate forecasts and observations combined with disregard for human safety would qualify as a breach of contract or nullify the contract in some way. Regardless of the legal status, I doubt Accuweather would file a lawsuit if The Desert Sun dropped them because there's enough evidence that the publicity of a lawsuit could potentially ruin Accuweather's reputation and future business. I would be glad to testify about how my complaint was humored but not taken seriously.