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Weather reality often lies between what the apps are saying

All apps are not created equal. Take the weather app. A few years ago, I would not have known that “app” was a word.
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How reliable is the weather app on your phone?

All apps are not created equal.

Take the weather app. A few years ago, I would not have known that “app” was a word. Today, I not only know what it means, I have also determined that where the weather app is concerned, there is a glass-is-half full variety, and a glass half empty one.

I happen to have the former, the husband, the latter. When it comes to his weather app, the glass is constantly draining.

“I wonder if I’ll be golfing this week,” he said gloomily, a couple of weeks back.

I whipped out my phone and checked out the forecast.

“Oh!” I said. “You’re wide open! Not a drop of rain expected, and the temps are looking good!”

Not one to immediately believe what my phone was telling me, the husband pulled out his own.

“What are you talking about?” he said. “It’s going to be brutally cold all week, and there may even be flurries on Thursday.”

I rather like my weather app. It tends to tell me, on a not infrequent basis, that I ought to put the boots away, and head to work in a windbreaker. The husband’s is more pessimistic. If his is to be believed, spring is still weeks away, and he’d be best advised to keep the fleece-lined parka close at hand.

Mine says Scottsdale. His says Saskatoon.

“Woo hoo!” I said a few days ago. “It’s going to be in the mid-teens on Saturday!”

The husband shook his head.

“Nope,” he said. “We’re still lodged in the single digits.”

Not sure why this is so, not unless one of us is having vision difficulties and unable to correctly read the forecast, which is indeed a distinct possibility.

But who knows? Perhaps the major shareholders of my weather app also sell barbecues and patio chairs, while those behind the husband’s trade in snowmobiles and winter tires.

More often than not, however, the weather reality lies between what our apps are saying. No snow, no sun, but something in between.

Perhaps, then, we should return to those long-ago days, long before we had apps, and before we even had cell phones.

We’d wake up each morning and look at the sky, then decide on our daily apparel. We’d grab the umbrella, not because of an app, but simply because it was raining.