Proof That Everybody's Tired Of This Long Winter. Even Chicago Meteorologists.

Weather geeks like me like to look at something called the National Weather Service forecast discussions to better understand the reasoning behind why the predictions came out the way they did.

A frigid January view of Chicago. Even the National Weather
Service there is crying uncle about this winter.
Photo by Jim Young/Reuters.  

The forecast discussions are available to the general public but that's not the intended audience.

The discussions are usually dry, not terribly engaging texts full of scientific terms, murky abbreviations and generally quite un-poetic prose.

Here's a tiny piece of a typical example, taken today from the Burlington, Vermont National Weather Service office:

NAM...BTV-4KM AND 12KM WRF DO SHOW AN
INCREASE IN PRECIPITATION COVERAGE ACROSS VERMONT AROUND
18Z...LASTING THRU THIS EVENING. NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES OTHER THAN
TO LOWER POPS/QPF A BIT ACROSS NRN NY. OVERALL LOOKING AT 0.10 TO
0.15" ACROSS VT AND < 0.10" ACROSS NRN NY.

Yeah, I know. Most people don't get that. I eat it up, but I'm strange. Weather geek, you understand.

So it's always cool when whoever writes these forecast discussions have a little fun. In Chicago, the National Weather Service yesterday humorously addressed the general groaning and gnashing of teeth in describing how a thaw would be short-lived, and rough winter weather would return:

GIVEN OUR TRACK RECORD
FOR SNOWING ON SATURDAY`S LATELY...THE WISE BET MIGHT BE FOR
MEASURABLE SNOW ON SATURDAY! FOR ANYONE WHO MAY CATCH A TOUCH OF
SPRING FEVER WITH THE RELATIVE WARMTH OF THURSDAY...FORGETABOUTIT!
ECMWF/GFS BOTH PAINT SUCH A BLEAK...DISMAL...COLD...AND
POTENTIALLY SNOWY PICTURE NEXT WEEK THAT ITS LIKELY TO LEAVE MANY
WINTER WEARY SOULS READY TO CURL UP INTO THE FETAL POSITION AND
BEG FOR MERCY FROM OLD MAN WINTER!

Fetal positions aren't terribly scientific, but such a thing is perfectly understandable given the kind of winter much of the nation has had.