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DSU professor Johnson provides forecast for Madison

            Bruce Johnson, in his first year as an assistant professor of business for information systems at Dakota State, has set up a weather forecast web page for the Madison area. Johnson says it’s a hobby of his to predict the weather. He is by no means an expert, but his forecasts are more accurate than the weatherman’s a majority of the time.

            “As a kid I was fascinated with numbers. I grew up in Portland, Oregon and always watched the weather. I really liked it as a hobby.” recalled Johnson. “I have no formal training at all. What I know I taught myself. I don’t know the technical side of it that well. I just have an interest and a knack for it. And sometimes I just get a feeling.”

            Johnson says he taught himself through books, observing weather forecasts on TV and the Internet. He gets information for his forecast off weather models on the Internet. The models are numeric and computer generated. The trick is to decide which one of the models is most accurate for the area, then adjusting the forecast accordingly.

            “Some models overstate and some understate the temperature,” said Johnson. “The trick is to see which ones do what and find the middle.”

            Another trick to his ability is to recall what has happened in each of the seasons previously. Johnson has not lived in Madison for all four seasons and says he’ll have more of a feel for the climate to produce even more accurate forecasts.

            “Each year there is something you haven’t seen before; it’s like watching a movie over and over again” Johnson said. “When you’ve lived in a climate for more than a year you start to learn the tricks of the climate through simple observation.”

            Johnson provides his service free of charge at: http://www.homepages.dsu.edu/johnbruc/weather/foreclc.htm

Johnson spends up to a half hour each day to update the forecast. Johnson says his forecast is not official and is provided by him as a hobby.

“I just do it as a service,” said Johnson. “I think I can provide a better forecast. Because it is for only one county, I can be more specific.”