What is a "Slow Day"?

I get emails asking me what the weather is like, what are "weather makers", etc, but I received this one email that caught my eye.

Chris,

I was just wondering for meteorologists and weather specialists, what does it mean to have a "slow day". People in the TSX have slow days or in the news, especially in sales, but I never hear about weather. Also, if "slow days" exsits, what do you do then?

Marianne

There is no such thing as a "slow day" in weather. Meteorologists and weather specialists are working 24/7. If you ever go into an Environment Canada building, you will see not one person sitting and doing nothing. The building may not be open 24/7, but people are there. They are tracking incoming storms, or even tracking storms that pass and see where they are headed next. With the radar systems, satellite imagery to creating the weather graphics for The Weather Network and updating their computers, there is always someone doing something.

Weather is considered an inexact science,which means that you cannot predict the weather once and leave it be for 24 hours hoping that it will not change. The saying "moodswings like the weather" comes from weather being inexact. The weather is always changing. Whether it'd be changing each hour or each second, it's changing. When people say "oh, look, that weather guy was wrong" it gets under my skin. Not because (s)he was wrong, but because most people do not understand that weather can never be 100% correct.

I have to admit though, when there is no change in weather within an hour, I get pretty bored and consider that a "slow weather change" or a "slow hour". And that's why I'm writing this blog now...

On one last note...CityWeather's producers have developed a CityWeather Back to School Forecast Blog to save me time. The address is www.citybts.blogspot.com .

Chris
city.weather@yahoo.ca