This morning I saw snow falling from the sky. I’d like to point out right now that even one flake of snow in mid-May is not amusing at all.
The weather here is so bizarre, half the time even the National Weather Service with all their high-tech equipment clearly has no clue. After years of reading the text on their Web site, I’ve determined that they use certain key phrases that really mean, "we have no idea." In other words, "go look out the window and figure it out for yourself."
For example, today’s forecast is a good example. It says, "Partly cloudy. Isolated rain and mountain snow showers in the morning then scattered rain and mountain snow showers in the afternoon." It uses a number of typical "we have no idea" phrases. For example, using the term "partly cloudy" is a good way to cover all your bases (i.e., CYA to use an acronym favored among programmers). When you look up in the sky around here in the Spring, odds are good you’ll see a cloud somewhere, so partly cloudy is a safe bet.
"Isolated rain showers" are another handy phrase. More than likely, it’s going to rain somewhere. So the weather gurus end up being correct; it will precipitate in some area. Even better is "scattered rain showers." That means it could rain pretty much anywhere. If it’s not raining at your house, the showers are really widely scattered. (Don’t you feel lucky?!) Another popular one is "mountain snow showers," which works from about September through June because we have some high mountains around here and one of them is probably getting snow.
It’s kind of like those "weather stations" you see in novelty stores that are basically a rock hanging on a rope. They say, "Check the Rock. If it’s wet, it’s raining. If it’s moving, it’s windy. If you can’t see it, it’s foggy. If rock is gone, it’s a tornado."
It may be that the meteorologists around here need to get themselves one of those.