[vanilla_nut]

I find that 4 to 7 day forecasts tend to be 80% accurate. So probably a little bit better than they were when I was a kid.

Unfortunately, the most important part of any forecast IMO is intensity. I don't care if we're going to get snow flurries all day, but if we're going to get a foot of snow, I would like to know -- and not just when the winter storm warning goes into effect!

Similarly, I don't care if we're going to get scattered showers all day. But if we're going to get a downpour in the afternoon, I'd like to know so I can avoid getting caught in a flash flood on a trail or on the road.

Same thing applies with temperature: if it's going to be cold all day, good to know. But if a rainstorm is going to remain active during a deep freeze and create a layer of ice on every exposed surface, I need to be prepared for walking, biking, or driving.

Fortunately there's a somewhat local weather station near me that provides an RSS feed of longform weather forecasts. But I notice that more and more people wind up surprised by slightly-abnormal weather events as they rely more and more on smartphone weather apps. Weather apps that utterly lack the nuance that a paragraph of text can provide.