225BatonRouge.com

What started as an idea from NBC management has created a little Baton Rouge weather buzz. Print ads, billboards and TV commercials featuring children crying over a rained-out birthday have been hyping the accuracy of weather forecasts by Nelson Robinson, WVLA Channel 33’s chief meteorologist. They call it Robinson’s 3-Degree Guarantee.

If Robinson’s evening forecast is correct—and he usually is—some lucky viewer wins an umbrella.

Is the guarantee based on legitimate meteorology or just a marketing strategy?

“It’s a combination of both,” Robinson says. “The marketing aspect gives viewers a chance to win an umbrella, but it gives me reason to look closer and be as accurate as possible.”

225 checked with our well-placed meteorology sources who say it’s actually not that astounding a feat. Technically Robinson can be off by 3 degrees either up or down, giving him a six-degree window. By modern meteorology standards that’s a pretty safe range to forecast one day out.

Robinson insists it’s his skill that keeps him spot-on with the daily forecast. “I’ve been doing this for so long in so many different regions of the world, usually in a marine or ocean environment, with limited data to work with.”

Since the promotion officially started Jan. 7, Robinson has missed only four times. Translation: As of this writing, 57 lucky viewers have new umbrellas courtesy of NBC.

So what’s the prize when he’s wrong? He says that rarely happens.

Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson, and your helpful colleagues at WVLA, for shedding some sunlight on these fortuitous forecasts.