National Weather Service vs. AccuWeather

Do you shop around for a weather forecast, or do you have a trusted forecaster that you rely on? While looking at the morning forecasts every day last week Gothamist couldn't help but notice that the National Weather Service and AccuWeather forecasts were often quite different, especially in the amount and timing of precipitation. We prefer the Weather Service because they provide a forecast discussion in which we can see the reasoning behind their forecast. We did not keep careful track of the forecasts but it seemed to us that AccuWeather was far more accurate, with the Weather Service repeatedly overforecasting the amount of rainfall.

Both forecasters are predicting a sunny, mild day today with high temperatures around 80 or 78. Both also have similar forecasts for the rest of the week: cloudy with a chance of showers. We will keep a close eye on their forecasts as the week goes on to see how they compare.

Maybe one of these forecasters needs to go to a refresher course, such as next month's Weather Watchers Workshop at Penn State (link sent to us by Gothamist Weather fan Caren. Thanks!).