Predictions are useful
But they are just predictions, I've been watching hurricanes for years and survived a couple of them, in general because their centers missed me, I drove through Katrina as it was coming ashore and arrived home just in time to get a tree through the bathroom ceiling ... so I made a cup of coffee and waited ... it sailed past and we spent a month cleaning up. The recent hurricane Laura has devastated Lake Charles, this was anticipated but the interesting thing is that Laura stayed at hurricane strength much further inland than any hurricane has done for years now - a swath of Louisiana will not get power or water until the end of the month if we're lucky. That was not predicted - I'm definitely in favour of improving predictions but we have to remember that they are just predictions based on updated dropsondes I guess, not actual facts.
Weather predictions are affected by what the general population thinks of them - if the prediction is for a very rainy day and we get a Derecho then everyone is pissed at the weather reporters and runs around screaming and wanting lawsuites, but if they are warned that at Derecho is coming and all we get is six inches of rain then everyone "knows" that they are smarter than the weather reporters and everyone is happy.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
