Blogging as a PR tool has caught on with so many companies and professions, but I’ve yet to understand why weather forecasters bother with it.

In most situations, blogging is a retroactive thing: here’s what I did today, what I thought about, some piece of news that sparked my ire. Bloggers who get paid to review products like rock tumblers might write about their experience with the product or site. In other words, we write about what’s already happened, not our guesses as to what might or might not occur.

But seldom do you find a blogger writing, for instance, “I’m a bit gassy right now thanks to the hot tamales I had for lunch meeting the cold cereal I had for breakfast, so there’s a definite chance of a warm front forming behind me. Later this week I’ll be in a good mood, with plenty of smiles and an even temperament due to the low pressure that’s moving into my work day on Wednesday.”

Obviously, it would be easy to check back with that blogger the following week to find out if the forecast proved true… just like it is with a weather blog.

Which is why, frankly, I don’t understand the time and effort our local meteorologists spend at it. As the saying goes, if you don’t like the weather in Kansas just wait 10 minutes and it will change. So why would someone immortalize their forecast in words that are so easily proved wrong? Don’t they realize how much that kills their credibility?

If I sound particularly chapped about this, I am. See, I’ve suspected for quite some time that one of our bigger meteorologists writes up all of his forecasts on Sunday after watching football (and knocking back a few beers). Invariably, his evening forecast will call for temps 5-10 degrees different from the next day’s reality; he’ll say there will be sunny skies (although leaving himself the truck-wide loophole by adding “with possible isolated showers”); and then he’ll spend the next three minutes of his camera time talking about football, tailgating and BBQ.

Last Thursday, for example, he babbled on about how hot it would be on Saturday (80+ F), and how the rain — if we got any — would hold off until well after the Chief’s game. It was rainy, cloudy and cool all weekend long, and it didn’t really stop raining until this morning.

I’ve reached the point where I no longer read the weather blogs for accurate forecasts. I don’t even watch the evening weather report now that I’ve figured out the morning meteorologist invariably contradicts the evening guy’s report (and, incidentally, usually gets it right). The only problem with that is having to put up with the happy morning talk from the overly-chipper newscasters.

All I can say is “I *heart* my DVR.”