“What started out as a joke has turned into a disaster”

That line from the movie Rocky IV is partially about the creation of this page. Storm HQ started as a joke. In late January of 2015, the various models started indicating that a rather large snowstorm was about to impact the Northeastern United States. The media hype was out of control, with talk of 1-3 feet or more for New York City and Boston. So, on Facebook, I started making fun of the hype with hourly updates. As the hype grew even worse, something happened – the storm spared New York City, making the hype look that much worse. Oh sure, Southern New England got buried, but the damage had been done.

During the blizzard, since I was making fun of the media, I started referring to all my reports as originating from “Storm HQ”. Since I had been already providing snowfall forecasts for storms on Facebook for friends, I created a new page for them, and called it Storm HQ. When there wasn’t anything going on, I at least did a weekly forecast on Sunday nights, to just give my friends a glance at the week ahead. The forecast was mainly for Southern New Hampshire, Eastern Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Eventually, a Twitter feed was added (https://twitter.com/TheRealStormHQ) and then this blog was born.

The Weekly forecast is still done every Sunday night, and a Weekend Outlook is also published on Thursday afternoons. You’ll also find occasional blog posts for other weather events, usually, but not always, involving storms. You’ll see in these posts an explanation as to why the forecast is what it is, and when needed, where the uncertainty lies in the forecast. Some of these posts will contain sarcasm and snarkiness as well, because that’s the way I am. I call ’em as I see ’em.

If you have any comments, or suggestions, feel free to drop me a line at scottakaplan@gmail.com