In case you don’t live in Western Washington or didn’t hear about Seattle’s “snowmaggedon” and ensuing “iceaggedon” the week of January 16, let me refresh you. The storm dumped well over a foot of snow in spots, blasted the region with a thick layer of ice, was responsible for at least one death and left hundreds of thousands of people without power.
But what I found really interesting was the fact that meteorologists actually admitted they got the forecast wrong. First with overestimating the amount of snow Seattle would receive and second when they admitted to prematurely forecasting the snow and ice would stop almost a day earlier than it actually did.
Now getting a weather forecast wrong is nothing new. But what I did find refreshing was the honesty from a number of forecasters admitting (ghasp) they actually got the forecast wrong.
A prime example of this comes from one of the Pacific Northwest’s most respected weather forecasters, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington Cliff Mass. In a blog post on Thursday, January 19, Mass wrote this:
Well folks, this is not my profession’s finest hour. We had forecast the continuation of the light freezing drizzle of yesterday (an irritant, but not a major threat) and then a warm-up today with rain coming in late. Our models did not indicate that the precipitation would move so far north, so fast.
How does this apply to the corporate PR that VOXUS practices? Well, if you get something wrong (which everyone does), admit your mistakes. Promise me, sugar-coating the truth ALWAYS comes back to bite you when it comes to the world of communications. Honesty… it’s always a good policy.
