The website of the Hydro-Meteorological Institute of Croatia offers much fun from day to day. And no kidding. One of its features is a graphic seven-day forecast showing the entire country. I enjoy going through all the seven maps on offer every single day. And it is an amazing show. If it is supposed to be sunny a week from today, the next day the picture is bound to change. Say, sun and clouds are shown. And so on, for seven days in a row. By the time the day in question arrives, all possible forecasts will have been attempted. On the actual day, the forecast has nothing whatsoever to do with the one a week ago. Say, clouds with abundant rain. To wit, the good meteorologists have no idea what is going on. At best, their forecasts work reasonably well only from one day to the next. The seven-day forecast is only for the appeasement of the credulous visitors of the site. Or for the entertainment of harlequins, like myself. As far as I am concerned, there is hardly any better evidence of the futility of science than meteorology. And the Hydro-Meteorological Institute of Croatia is the proof.

Addendum (July 1, 2016)

The website of the Hydro-Meteorological Institute of Croatia has been much fun as of late. Their forecasts are all over the place, and ever more so. To prove my point, I jotted down the seven forecasts for central Istria early last fall. From the terrace of my house in Motovun, I could follow the actual weather in the region without fail. The range of symbols showing different combinations of the sun, clouds, and rain was quite impressive, but they kept changing from day to day (“An Impressive Range of Symbols,” September 30, 2015). On top of that, the last forecast had little if anything to do with actual weather on the chosen day. To prove my point one more time, I repeated the exercise late last spring (“An Impressive Range of Symbols, Again,” June 14, 2016). Same old. I am not sure whether or not I will go through this exercise ever again, but it is safe to bet that the Hydro-Meteorological Institute of Croatia will be ever more fun to follow as climate change gets entrenched. Slowly but surely, the futility of science will become obvious to all. And meteorology will offer the best entertainment around.