Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to predict what the weather will be --today, tomorrow, and on into the future. Voluminous data has been collected and analyzed. Satellites and other technologies have been thrown at the problem. Fancy graphic screens behind the weather guy/gal on your local TV station appear to add an empirical layer to the evening forecast.
But, most of time, most of there experts still seem to be wrong.
Into that void, steps the Weather Prediction Center, a new platform that allows you to make your best guess about various weather-related questions. Or, think up a new one yourself. If you've read The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, you can experience the theories in that excellent book here.
The basic concept is that large groups of people, predicting randomly, may guess the outcome of some future event more accurately than any one "expert." Of course, the outcome also depends on how well-informed the "crowd" is on the question at hand, as well as what kind of time horizon is involved, among other factors.
But, from my perspective, all of that is icing on the cake. The fun part is just to join the party and predict!
(And then, check back now and then to see how the results evolve over time.)
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