In the meantime, it would help if officials and the public monitored weather forecasts, he said, rather than relying on a "snapshot" of the weather that might be proved inaccurate as a storm develops "The Atlanta 'snow' event is a poster child for this theme." "The theme is 'Extreme Weather-Climate and the Built Environment: New Perspectives, Opportunities, and Tools,' " Shepherd wrote. He invited government officials to discuss ways for everyone to improve - conveniently enough, the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting will be held in Atlanta next week. And he said meteorologists should also avoid confusing their audience with an overabundance of possible weather models. Shepherd asks if the public might respond better to a weather index or numbers that signify a storm's potential impact. The public, and its leaders, might not realize the degree of certainty that underpins words such as "watch" and "warning." A watch, he notes, means 2-4 inches of snow, or noteworthy freezing rain or sleet, might fall in a day or less. Perhaps the problem is the terminology, Shepherd says. And he acknowledges, "Our decision-makers have a tough job given these circumstances, and I know they try to make the best decisions with the information they have." The governor isn't mentioned by name in Sheperd's post. This isn't to suggest there's a full-on feud brewing between Georgia's politicians and its weather experts. WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY MORNING THROUGH "CLAYTON-COBB-DEKALB-GWINNETT-HENRY-NORTH FULTON-ROCKDALE-SOUTH FULTON- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF. To those who say that they were told the storm would stay south of Atlanta, and that there were no storm watches or warnings before Tuesday, Shepherd has a simple response: "Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, and Wrong!" The post, titled "An Open Thank You to Meteorologists in Atlanta," was highlighted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Jim Galloway today. "Some in the public, social medial or decision-making positions would 'blame' the meteorologists," Shepherd wrote in a blog post published Wednesday. Marshall Shepherd, a professor at the University of Georgia in Athens (about an hour from Atlanta) says, "as soon as I saw what was unfolding with kids being stranded in schools, 6+ hour commutes, and other horror stories, I knew it was coming, I knew it."Īnd then it came: people hinting that meteorologists had left Atlanta and other Georgia towns vulnerable to a "rush hour from hell," as Mark wrote for The Two-Way earlier today. One answer came from the head of the American Meteorological Society, who also lives in Georgia.ĪMS President J. Nathan Deal called Tuesday's crippling winter storm "unexpected," he drew responses from several forecasters. Meteorologists are used to people faulting their weather predictions. Nathan Deal has called Tuesday's snow storm "unexpected" - prompting a response from weather forecasters. Traffic is snarled along the I-285 perimeter north of Atlanta's metro area Wednesday.