Blizzard 2015: Meteorologist apologizes for "big forecast miss"
Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the New York City area shut down Monday evening after predictions of an epic blizzard drifted in from forecasters.
"We are facing most likely one of the largest snow storms in the history of this city," said New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio at a press conference on Sunday morning, echoing the words of National Weather Service forecasters at the time. "Don't underestimate this storm."
The National Weather Service over the weekend had issued a blizzard warning for a 250-mile swath of the region, meaning heavy, blowing snow and potential whiteout conditions.
However, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, it became apparent that the dire warnings were wrong in many places. Although parts of Long Island and New England were experiencing heavy snow and strong gusts, overall, things were not as bad as originally feared.
As a result, an unusual mea culpa was issued by meteorologist Gary Szatkowski, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mt. Holly, N.J.
"My deepest apologies to many key decision makers and so many members of the general public," he said via Twitter early Tuesday morning.
You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right, and we didn't. Once again, I'm sorry.
— Gary Szatkowski (@GarySzatkowski) January 27, 2015
This is a big storm further off to our northeast. New York City will see good amounts of snow, and for portions of New England it will...
— Gary Szatkowski (@GarySzatkowski) January 27, 2015
...be very high impact. But for much of New Jersey, and for the Philadelphia Metropolitan area, this is a big forecast miss.
— Gary Szatkowski (@GarySzatkowski) January 27, 2015
In a press conference Tuesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo defended officials' reaction to the dire predictions of forecasters, citing the massive snowstorm in Buffalo in November that was not predicted to be bad. The severity caught nearly everyone by surprise.
Cuomo also said it is always better to overreact to severe weather, in part because it improves readiness.
Szatkowski might be a familiar name to some in the Tri-State area. He was described as one of the "heroes" of Superstorm Sandy for getting predictions about that storm's severity right, and for broadcasting them loudly.
NJ.com reports that Szatkowski "issued some of the strongest warnings that anyone in the weather community had seen from a meteorologist in his position. He went from warning people about the potential dangers of the storm on that Tuesday to practically begging them to evacuate five days later in what he titled a 'Personal Plea' in his briefing packet."
On social media, there was a lot of support for Szatkowski after the apology.
I don't think @GarySzatkowski or any other meterologist should apologize for #Snowmageddon2015 forecasts are based on models people not 100%
— Robin C. McClary (@celestemc) January 27, 2015
So far in Tri-state region only @GarySzatkowski has apologized for getting it so wrong. Wish more would take responsibility #BlizzardBust
— Arka Sengupta (@arkapsengupta) January 27, 2015
Please understand that if the storm doesn't materialize as expected, nobody is harsher on meteorologists than ourselves. We know.
— Kate Bilo CBS3 (@katebilo) January 27, 2015