Outlooks, Alerts & Forecasts Disclaimer

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With regards to the forecasts, outlooks, and alerts West Michigan Weather produces, publishes, forwards, or otherwise shares with the community:

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WMIWX forecasters are NOT degreed meteorologists.

While we more than likely have more knowledge of weather forecasting than the average person, we are, in the end, making outlook diagrams and forecast discussions based on current publicly available model data and our own beliefs and predictions about the current and future conditions.

 

These forecasts and discussions, and especially our School Closing Outlooks, are a great tool to review and a great way to increase your awareness for any given weather event. However, they primarily serve as a fun, interesting way to further engage the community around us and make the community more #WeatherAware.

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Furthermore, our school closing outlooks are not designed to advise, suggest, or otherwise influence, in any way, the decisions of school administrators when considering the possibility of closing, delaying, or dismissing early. 

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Any of the aforementioned "products" should not be considered expert forecasts and should be treated as such. Weather is extremely difficult to accurately forecast, especially in the long term, and often times even the experts and brilliant minds at the National Weather Service, NWS Storm Prediction Center, NWS National Hurricane Center, and the various broadcast meteorologists around the state and the world produce forecasts, outlooks, and alerts that never manifest or are otherwise proven incorrect.

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This should not be a reason to ignore these forecasts or weather in general; quite the opposite, it should prompt the public to be even more aware of the weather, and the potential for rapidly changing weather conditions, especially in Michigan.

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With regards to severe weather threats, excessive rainfall threats, and future temperature/precipitation chances we primarily provide official forecasts from the National Weather Service and will simply "dumb-down" or put into "laymen's terms" the forecast language, threats, timing, etc for our forecast discussion and may or may not add our own thoughts, opinions, etc.

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For expert forecasts please rely on the local degreed, AMA Certified Meteorologists and/or the National Weather Service/NWS Storm Prediction Center. 

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With regards to Alerts that West Michigan Weather forwards:

The alerts that West Michigan Weather forwards come directly from the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center and the following NWS Local Forecasts Offices: Grand Rapids (MI), Northern Indiana (IN), Detroit (MI), Gaylord (MI), Chicago (IL), Milwaukee (WI), and Green Bay (WI).

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West Michigan Weather attempts to relay every impactful weather alert, especially those that pose immediate and profound threats to life and property, to the public via our website, social media, and more. However, we are not always able to do so. All of our staff work full-time jobs and we are often engaged in chasing these events when we are not at work which is very intensive and time-consuming in of itself. As a best practice, each person should have multiple, reliable ways to receive weather alerts and should NOT rely solely on West Michigan Weather or any other single source for weather information and warnings. 

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