Forecasting accuracy of weather forecasts

On Sept 16 Lynn Kelliher wrote in your newspaper about the “uncanny accuracy” of long-range weather forecaster Ken Ring.

In that article, Mr Ring predicts that “there will be a sudden downward plunge into sub-zeros in the last few days of November”.

We are now in the last day of November, and the temperatures remain stubbornly fixed at 8 to 10 degrees above zero.

Can I now expect a follow-up article from Ms Kelliher with a re-analysis of the accuracy of these long-range forecasts? Or are we just going to wait until Mr Ring, who literally makes thousands and thousands of predictions and forecasts a year, manages by chance to get another single one right and laud his “uncanny” talents again?

Dave Eklund

Rathfarnham

Dublin 16