What is Boston GroundHogs? 

A group of individuals and a rodent who strongly believe that short-term forecasting was better several years ago, prior to the introduction of the new forecasting models.  Today, some forecasts appear to be made by individuals who never look at the sky or utilize their prior experiences.
 

What does Boston GroundHogs propose to do?

We are going to track forecasts from the myriad of forecasters in the greater Boston area and compare the prognostications to actual weather that occurs at Boston’s Logan Airport.  Forecasts will be analyzed daily for 6 periods into the future (3 days, day & night) and scored based on accuracy.  Additional points are given for the detail of the forecast (ie. “Highs between 65-67” will be given more credence than “Highs in the 60’s”).

How will Boston GroundHogs track forecasts?

We are developing a system that automatically acquires, parses and analyzes forecasts.  The National Weather Service website will provide us with the observations we need as a baseline.  The forecasts will be compared to the baseline and scored, and results posted on this site.  The scoring grid will be available shortly.

 
Who will Boston GroundHogs track?

We propose to track the major local weather forecasters.  This includes the local outlets of TV networks, potentially web-based forecasting systems, and those local forecasters who have websites of their own (eg. Matt Noyes and Todd Gross), and of course, our favorite groundhogs, the NWS team in Taunton.  Only information that is freely available will be tracked.

What else will Boston GroundHogs provide?

In addition to up-to-date scoring of forecasts and some historical data, there will also be witty commentary on the weather, forecasts and results, and periodic special features geared towards enlightening our readers.

When will Boston GroundHogs be up and running?

Given the other projects we are currently working on, not until sometime in late 2021.