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KIRO/SeattleInsider.com
2807 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121

Dear Mr. Wappler and Mr. Hammel,

I wanted to congratulate the KIRO weather team on winning my

Why don’t we combine the two like so:

Sagittarius – It will rain or snow or be sunny or overcast today. You’ll see some people, and do some stuff.

That’s a very good question. I’m going to write to them and hopefully they’ll answer.

On an unrelated note, a few nights ago I was watching
Secrets of the Dead: Tragedy at the Pole, which recounts Robert Scott’s attempt to be the first person to the south pole. Scott made it — after the Norwegian Amundsen — and his party perished on the way back. The researcher, Dr. Susan Soloman, noted Scott’s strong reliance on weather data by George Simpson.

As it turned out, Simpson’s forecasts were remarkably accurate (within 3 degrees) … until the way back. One out of 10-15 years, the year of Scott’s expedition, the temperature drops to abnormally low levels.

Simpson’s forecasts were based on frequent, manual measurements and building up a mathematical model. It’s remarkable how well he did with what he had. I would have hoped that 90 years later, with satellites, radar and remote measuring, we’d be able to improve upon that.

Jim