Saturday, October 1, 2016

A Little Rain and a Stiff Breeze Can't Dampen Spirits in Provincetown

Umbrellas and ponchos on Commercial Street, seen through raindrops
on my windshield, show that a little rain can't stop a good time in PTown.
We don't pay a lot of attention to weather forecasts in PTown, because the prediction will change in about an hour, and again in another hour, and still be wrong. What I do is stick my head out the window, and if it comes in dry, I go out. If it comes in wet, I put on a jacket, and go out. We don't let a little rain stop us from enjoying ourselves.
It is a little difficult to predict the weather here, since we're virtually surrounded by deep water, which acts as a kind of insulator for us. Generally, we stay a little cooler than the folks in Boston in the summer, and a bit warmer than they are in the winter. That's nice, but it also makes accurate weather prediction a little tougher.
I have absolutely nothing to back this up, but it seems to me that when dire weather conditions are predicted far in advance, when the day rolls around, about 70% of the time the weather's not so bad after all. If they say on a Monday that Thursday will be rainy all day, often we get a reprieve, with just a little rain for an hour or two, or none at all.
The Provincetown Chamber of Commerce used to take the Boston weather forecasters out to lunch every spring and explain how predictions a week in advance for a weekend of lousy weather on the Cape killed our opportunity to make our living. People would make plans to visit Maine instead, or just stay home altogether. By the time it became obvious that the weekend weather would be lovely, it was too late to reserve their favorite spot or to get a decent rate on a flight.
We actually need the rain we've gotten the last couple of days, and they're calling for nice weather for Columbus Day and Women's Week, so let's hope this way-too-early prediction holds out.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, Will. Enter your E-mail address on the right and get new posts, right from your E-mail. Thanks for reading my blog.

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