The Mathematics Of Snow Business

It's the first legitimate snowstorm of the 2013-2014 winter season. Environment Canada has forecast 30 centimetres of the white stuff, but I have my own way of calculating the severity of the weather. I use this formula:

Take the Environment Canada forecast (BS), divide by two (2), then decrease result (BS/2) by 10% (IDV) and that should give you the actual accumulation (SNOW).

BS/2 = BS2 * (1-IDV) = SNOW

Let's plug in the figures and see what we get.....30cm/2 = 15cm *(1-0.1) = 13.5cm. So, in reality we're going to get 13.5cm of snow, not 30 as forecast.

My method also works for Environment Canada's wind forecasts , though the formula is somewhat different, as follows: BS - BS = actual wind. Let's say that Environment Canada forecasts 70 km/h of wind, then using that number we can calculate the actual wind: 70km/h - 70 km/h = 0. No wind. This model never fails for wind. With snow it's accurate 4 times out of 5 when recommended by dentists who are + or - 3% useful, 19 times out of 20.