What Does "A 50% Chance of Rain" Actually Mean?

Your friendly local weather person says there's a 10% chance it will rain today, so you throw on your flip-flops and head out to enjoy a beautiful day. Next thing you know, you're running through puddles, trying to get out of a torrential downpour. Bad luck or bad weather person?
Hosted by: Michael Aranda
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Sources:
www.weather.gov/ffc/pop
weather.com/news/news/heres-w...
www.forbes.com/sites/marshall...
journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/1...

[@Master_Therion]

I still don't understand meteorologists on the TV. I've never heard them actually talk about meteors.

[@d_wang9836]

It means it's gonna rain if you have something important to do. And stay sunny if you don't have to do anything

[@PintsizeYT]

I enjoy seeing a 100% chance of rain, only to find out that it doesn't end up raining...

[@60secondsuccess39]

You should tell this to the cows. Apparently, whenever it's supposed to rain, they will all group up together and lie down in the field. Supposedly they do it to keep each

[@iddobarzilai68]

Man i allways feel like such a smart ass when i tell my friends about stuff i learned from this channel.

[@josephdillard9907]

I always figured that a 50% chance of rain meant that there was just as good a chance of rain as there is no rain and so it's basically just like saying "we have no idea if it's going to rain or not"

[@Godsknight]

THE Meteorologist IN MY AREA IS NOT THAT CONFINDENT HE'S ALWAYS CHANGING HIS MIND

[@cup_check_official]

50% chance of rain ? how do i get this ability? is it a passive ability?

[@K0ester]

Always wondered this, thanks for the video!

[@bloom22094]

yay your back Michael!

[@Laura-qp9iw]

Thanks for explaining, I've always wondered about that

[@februerin]

So this is slightly different than I had it explained to me once by a local meteorologist.

[@devinterrazas5465]

THANK U! U EXPLAINED THIS PERFECTLY!

[@brian554xx]

The "short straw" comment betrays an anti-rain bias. Some of us like rain.

[@michaelpadovani9566]

Perfect! Great job. Meteorologist here.

[@ixamraxi]

I always assumed it meant approximations in land mass area, so 50% meant about half the region the meteorologist covers was expected to receive rain. Seems I was not too far off, though I had no idea that confidence level was a factor in the calculation. Interesting to know!

[@ec27519]

What is the threshold used to determine which symbol to use for a given day when generating an extended forecast graphic?

[@dfjshjkd]

thank you!

[@magdykhalil7567]

Hi Hank and the rest of scishow!!!

[@nobodyuknow2490]

"What Does "A 50% Chance of Rain" Actually Mean?"