It never ceases to amaze me how far off their predictions weathermen can be. How can they, veterans of the field with all the resources known to man at their fingertips, be so wrong?

Case in point: Late Monday afternoon the TV weather guys had this prediction for the Milwaukee area: From noon until 3:00 the next day we were to get rain with increasing winds. Starting at 3:00 the rain would turn to snow as temperatures dropped dramatically and winds picked up considerably. The result, by late afternoon Tuesday, we were to see blizzard conditions with approximately three inches of snow accumulating into the evening. Worse, the weather guys said, the high winds—predicted at gusting to 40 or even 50 mph—would create dangerous wind chill temperatures and even hazardous driving conditions. The stations posted travel advisories throughout the day Tuesday, saying people should avoid driving if they could.

So, what happened in the Milwaukee area Tuesday afternoon? Not much. We had fog and calm breezes until later in the afternoon when the winds picked up. Yes, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in a couple hours—was in the low 20s by late afternoon—but noting out of the ordinary. (What was extraordinary was the balmy weather we experienced that morning. This is late January, after all.)

Sure, the winds picked up and we got some nasty wind chill factors going. Wednesday morning starts out -5 degrees, with a wind chill factor of -29 degrees. But the blizzard and dangerous winds? No where to be found, at least not around here. Turns out the big storm the chicken littles had been predicting on Monday afternoon would hit this area passed to the east. Illinois and Michigan got pounded, but not us.

Why can’t weather folks be more accurate? Or, more importantly, why do we give them so much credibility? Dozens of afternoon and evening programs around the Milwaukee area were canceled Tuesday because of the dire warnings coming from our TV gods. Me? I figured it would be a bust—confirmed when I checked the radar map on weather.com Tuesday afternoon—so I wasn’t surprised. But still amazed.

Amazed that an individual could be so wrong so many times throughout the year and still keep his job. Getting paid well to make so many false guesses. It boggles the mind.

Bottom line: use the internet to make your own predictions. You’ll be closer to reality than the $100,000 +/year “experts” at the TV stations.