I can no longer place any trust in the weather reports I hear.

We have satellite pictures, radar images and barometric instruments. We have instant communications informing everyone of high winds, extreme temperatures, fog, rain, snow, hail headed our way.

With all this data at their fingertips, our weather forecasters still are regularly wrong, particularly when they attempt any future forecast later than tomorrow.

We no longer say, “It’s going to rain.” Now, we announce, “It’s supposed to rain.”

No one is certain anymore. We are told that the forecast is for a 50 percent chance of snow. That the show should fall only in the north, while the southeast will be sunny. In Maine, there is a pretty large area in the middle of the state. That’s where I live. What can my neighbors and I expect? A “mixed bag” — whatever that is.

After all this hedging, the forecast is still often wrong. Twelve inches of snow was forecast and only 4 inches arrived in our last storm.

Just once, I would like to hear meteorologists apologize for their mistakes.

We take these forecasts seriously. Trips are postponed, schools are closed or stay open, stores and offices are closed or the workers sent home early. Don’t these forecasters realize the chaos they create unnecessarily when they are wrong?

Surely not. Surely, they have lost my respect.

Richard Joseph LaPorte

Skowhegan