...and always carry an umbrella.

We Americans like to complain that our weathermen have no idea what they're talking about.  However, on any given day, it's likely that they're close.  The chances of a weather forecast on the central east coast to be incredibly wrong is actually pretty low.  Of course, I have no hard facts or statistics for this, but whatever.

In Australia, however, the forecast for the day changes up until 10 minutes after the fact.  It is currently just about 2.30p on Friday afternoon.  On Wednesday, the forecast for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, was sunny, highs in the mid 20s.  On Thursday morning, the forecast for Friday, was partly cloudy, Saturday and Sunday sunny and warm.  On Thursday afternoon, the forecast for Friday was sunny and low 20s, Saturday sunny and warm, and Sunday partly cloudy.  On Friday morning, I rolled out of bed to cloudy skies and a cool breeze.  The forecast for Friday was cloudy and high of 20, Saturday still sunny and warm, and Sunday, cloudy and highs of 20.  And now, as I write this while sitting on the balcony in the sunshine, there's barely a cloud in the sky, and it's 22 degrees [and the forecast for tomorrow is sunny, highs of 26, and showers in the afternoon].  So, yeah.  Good job guys.

Upon having a conversation with a coworker about the weather, his claim was that Australians are crap at predicting cold weather, but pretty spot on when it comes to the summer-time temps.  So we'll see.  For what it's worth, his justification sounded legitimate due to his technical jargon referring to completely erratic winds that surround southern Australia during winter, and I'm no expert, so I'm going to go with it.

In the mean time, I've learned to expect the unexpected.  I wear/take a jacket with me all the time, and often spend half the day with it on and half the day without.  This morning I started off with jeans and a jacket, and now I'm sitting on here barefoot and in shorts and a t-shirt.  I also find myself just barely making it to work before the rain hits - where it will rain pretty solid for an hour, and then be over.  I think last week it rained for the entire morning, and that was actually pretty miserable by Aussie standards. 

On that note, whenever the locals bring up the weather, finding out that we're not from 'round here, they apologise for the crap weather.  Seriously?  Sure we arrived here as winter was ending, but really, if your winter is comprised of some rain and temps in the teens, I can totally handle that.

Note: all temps are in Celsius - I've started to make the switch.

-EP