Who's been burned by a bad weather forecast?

Just wondering how many of you have had your coaster trip / outdoor plans crashed by a bad weather forecast this year? I was planning on visiting CP on Labor Day with some Family. I checked on the weather forecast for Sandusky on my computer all last week and it showed sunny and about 73. Then Saturday night, it started to show rain, but only a 50% chance, still OK. Monday rolled around and it rained all *&%#%* day long! Funny thing was that it showed rain for Sunday, but Sunday was great and we had a great family picnic.

Is it just me, or does it seem that the weather forecasts are becomming less and less accurate? News stations are always bragging about their new radars and new computers, but with all of this new technology, they really can't make an accurate forecast more than 24-36 hours in advance. It seems like the forecasts years ago when each station had their own meteorologist, the five day was fairly accurate. Now a lot of stations just report what Accu-Weather or some other forecasting company says and they are not very reliable.

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I regret to inform you that Cedar Point's newest roller coaster, Top Thrill Dragster will not be operational today, or tomorrow or probably any day that you decide to visit our park. Please accept our apologies.

I can say that I've never in my life had a day at an amusement park ruined by rain. In fact, every time it rains when I'm at a park, it makes my day better, because the lines clear out and it gets cooler.

The only time I've been annoyed by a bad forecast is during a trip to SFWoA in May. The forecast said sunny and 70. Well it got sunny, but never above 50, and I had on a T-shirt and shorts. I had to buy a lame $45 fleece to stay warm.

But you're right, meteorology is a huge guessing game. I take forecasts with a grain of salt... especially the end parts of the 5- or 7-day forecasts.

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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.

The forecast for Labor Day weekend around the greater midwest did in fact nearly look really miserable. I almost cancelled my plans to go to HW on Sunday and Monday...but since the hotel was prepaid and had an indoor pool I decided I was going to take the chance. So I packed a couple of board games (I was w/my little sister) just in case and made the trek to Santa Claus. Had beautiful weather Sunday evening and a great morning on Monday, then on and off showers in the afternoon, but no lightening. The rain drove the already small crowd home, and we rode Raven, in the rain, six or seven times. Bliss. :)

Now for me to stop rubbing it in and get to my point...in my experience, rain has never ENDED my day at a park, and has nearly always made it BETTER, but it's all about ATTITUDE. Pack for any kind of weather, even if it's July, and have a back up plan in case of horrible weather and you'll be fine.

The weather forecast in the DC/Maryland area was quite dire for Labor Day. Of course nothing happened until SFA closed at 8pm. I think we would've been much more crowded had the weathermen/women kept their mouths shut about rain during the day. There's too much boasting of "We have Super Doppler 10,000 technology and the most accurate forecast", and people buy it hook, line, and sinker. I used to believe whole-heartedly in the Weather Channel, but you can't trust their forecast either. The best thing is to just take your chances sometimes.
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If someone makes a post and you post-quote it right beneath it, you're wasting bandwidth. Think before you press the button.

Rain is great for park visits. It chases away the crowds, yet unless there is lightning, the rides remain open. How can you go wrong?

Haven't you always wanted to ride a log flume with a 230' drop?

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Ask yourself; When was the last time YOU visited Conneaut Lake Park?
*** This post was edited by Black 7 9/3/2003 12:28:59 AM ***

I agree with Dawn, it's all about your attitude. I personally love it when the skies open up early in the morning. It keeps people away and, in my experience, clears up later and ensures light crowds and wet tracks.

I've experienced all kinds of weather. Hot and sunny in early April, severe thunderstorms, sudden cold bursts in September (which is much warmer than often depicted), etc. Despite all this, I've never had a day ruined by weather. My company, yes, but never Mother Nature. :)

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"You know, Skywarp? I can't wait to get back to Cybertron. Earth's so flat."

The past three times Ive gone to SFGAm have been cut short by rain. And when I was at IOA in May '02, it started to rain at about 4:30. Luckily I got on the Incredible Hulk but no Dueling Dragons. We went in line and there were storm clouds. And as soon as we got to the last people waiting, they said its closed. Of course when we went to Suess Landing next we saw it running. Never trust the GP.

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"Before you insult anyone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you do insult them, you'll be a mile away and have there shoes.

The past two times I have been to Dorney, it has rained and really dampered my day. We are living in England over here on the east coast. Its been raining alot here lately. A matter of fact, its raining right now.

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."

My trip to Dorney/SFGAdv was cut a little short at GAdv by severe storms, but I had already ridden everything, even some multiples rides, so only re-rides were taken by Mother Nature. In general, I agree with those who say a rainy day is the best day to go. I had a day this summer that was predicted as a 90% chance of showers all day long in Sandusky, no sun, crappy stay inside day. I decided to go anyway, and if you want to see what the weather turned out to be after the deluge stopped at about noon, go to Dragster's page on CBuzz and check out the picture of the tower with the sun glaring behind it - my favorite picture I've taken at CP!

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Brett
Resident Launch Whore

Went on a trip with a friend to Virginia and Maryland at the end of April... not exactly the time of year for great coaster-riding weather, but we weren't expecting a cold and cloudy day at PKD followed by an even colder and pouring day at BGW. Fortunately, we were able to get in everything we wanted at Busch so we could stop at SFA on the way home, which turned out to be a beautiful sunny day!

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

I always have a bad reaction when I see poor forcasts for days when I'm going to parks, but I've never had a day ruined by rain yet.

Just this past week I went to SFWOA and the forcast was horrible for the entire day. Well, it started off bad, and did shut down for a while while a big storm blew through, but nobody was at the park, which made for a very enjoyable day.

Another example is when I went to WOF earlier this year, and the forcast was for rain. I was pretty upset, and was still griping when we arrived at the park and it was still raining. However, they were running rides anyway, and I got three straight rides on Mamba with no waits to start off the day. Despite the slight pain from the rain, it was quite an experience, and the crowds remained sparse the rest of the day even though the rain cleared out quickly.

So I have to agree that so far the rain has never ruined a day, and has in fact made it better in many ways.

Take care and God bless! :)

I thought I was going to be burned, on one of the days i was at CP this year. It started to rain around 6 and stopped around 9:45. Just about everyone left, I had already to get some lunch at breakers. Then I heard the distant click click of magnum, it ran for around 30 mins before anyone got on, but that was a straight 45 min of magnum rerides, at night. :)

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Western Michigan University Engineering student.
Go Broncos!

We decided to fly to California in April. It didn't even make it in to the 70's. It was warmer in Chicago. We had a great time though.

I did my first coaster tour type thingy as part of the first vacation I'd had in 4 years. Road trip from Boston to Minneapolis. I made it to SFNE and Kennywood before the weather turned to hell.

It's sorta off-topic, because the weather reports were pretty much right. I went to Sandusky despite the weather reports and, sure enough, lightning all over the joint. I ended up deciding against staying in Sandusky by myself for 4 days and instead went back to Boston. Glad I did, I watched all the news reports of flooding in Ohio, a tornado north of Pittsburgh, etc etc.

Suffice it to say, I never made it to Cedar Point. In the end, I decided to follow the advice I've seen others give on here and elsewhere and make the last and only other spot on my trip Holiday World. I'm glad I did, and I'll get another chance to ride MF and TTD, especially when the latter has worked out most of the bugs.

Last month we went to CP despite the hourly forecast at accuweather predicting rain at 5PM. Beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, until about 4:30. Was on the magnum platform at 4:55 when they closed it due to a storm coming in. We didn't even get to the hydraulics building for TTD before it just downpoured. I had my daughter(9) and nephew(11) with me. We were so soaked within a couple of minutes, we just splashed each other and played in the rain for the next 20 minutes.

It poured on us once in June too. Early june, my nephew had never seen the summer spectacular, park closed at 10 anyways. Started to sprinkle a little as the light show started. Downpour came on in the last verse of lee greenwood.

Wouldn't say it ruined our day either time.

My experience in past years tells me to not listen to weather, if I did I would have missed out on three plus good weekends. I have been hitting at least 2 parks each week this summer and have only had 2.5 rain outs. One was Conneaut Lake rains came in at about 6:30 on a saturday, park closed. Then a week later a storm passed though CP and rides closed for about 2 hours, then labor day but that was a last minute trip since we went to CP on fri and CLP on sat and monday was a last second trip which lasted 3 wet hours and and about 15 rides. So I don't even bother with the weatherman anymore.

Silver Dollar City was open all day Friday, and it rained until about 3:00. Let me tell you, 67mph raindrops sting...but we had more fun in the rain than we'd had there in quite a while.

Celebration City on the other hand, believed the thunderstorm threats from the National Weather Service and decided not to open. That decision was made long before the 3:00 openning time and that was a big mistake. The sun came out, the temperature stayed in the upper 70's, and there wasn't even any thunder till after midnight. It's bad enough when the weatherman says it's going to be great and you get rained out. It's downright shameful to sit an stare at a vacant park on what turned out to be one of the most beautiful evenings of the summer. CC realized the weatherman was off by a long shot, but it was too late to get all their workers there. I understand they are very concerned for the safety of their guests, but I hope in the future they wait to the last minute, then send the employees home, instead of telling them not to come to work at all.

ME! Went to Sixflags Great Adventure today 9-4-03, and they shut down the park in less then a hour because it started to thunder, and rain heavy. All the travel for a ride on the tea cups! UGH.