If Only They Could Take a Retest -- Poor Grades for All

Ouch. It was a tough outing for the local weather mavens for the snowstorm just concluding. Not that we really needed a reminder of the fallibility of forecasters and their much-acclaimed weather models, but we certainly got one. A storm that had been anticipated for almost a week was essentially pronounced dead just 24 hours prior to its ultimate beginning. To borrow from Mark Twain, reports of the storm's demise were greatly exaggerated. Here are the grades for the Xmas Eve Eve storm of 2010. Remember to follow us on Twitter.

Piles of snow surround this golden retriever/cocker spaniel mix (courtesy Fuzzy Mutt Photos)

WCCO: F+ Declared "little or no snow from metro north and east" on Tuesday with "an extended period of dry weather ahead."
KSTP: F Not only missed the boat like everyone else, but also had the worst prediction on Thursday morning.
Fox: D+ Fox deserves a bit of credit for holding on to a forecast of "maybe up to an inch of snow here in the metro" on Tuesday night when others had written off the storm.
KARE: F On Tuesday night, KARE said, "If we see any snow, it would be in the southwest metro and be less than an inch.
Star Tribune: D First suggested the re-emergence of the storm on Wednesday night and came closest to nailing the forecast with its predictions on Thursday morning.
MPR: F Had the snow going to the southwest of the metro. And when the snow was back in the picture, their predictions for the metro were not clear.
NWS: F While they never took snow out of the forecast (maintaining a 30-40% probability), there was no mention of accumulations through Tuesday night. The introduction of a weather advisory was too late to serve its "heads up" purpose.