Easy work, good pay, no thought involved.

I swear, I don't know why people at the National Weather Service get paid. I know it's not original, and I know it's not even original with me. My theory is that you could get at least as good results by having a Weather Service Bingo card (a 5-by-5 matrix with weather phrases randomly filled in) and throwing a dart at it. (But they probably use the old-fashioned methods of examining chicken entrails.)

Last Friday's forecast: Partly cloudy. That "partly cloudy" included two inches of rain in a 20-minute period, rolling thunderclaps enough to make you think they were shooting a remake of Patton on the next street, and enough lightning to read by. (And, of course, many of my neighbors had to do just that, as some 25,000 Richmonders lost power during the storm.)

So today, the NWS issued a Severe Weather Alert for thunderstorms, between 2 and 8 p.m. Here's part of the forecast: "Hail To 2 Inches In Diameter...Thunderstorm Wind Gusts To 70 Mph...And Dangerous Lightning Are Possible In These Areas." What did we get? Sunshine, and lots of it, until it turned into partly cloudy.