FARGO — Last week, for the first time this season, premature talk of a snowstorm began. Any detailed discussion of a storm in a week or more is pure fantasy. At seven to ten days, anything related to a weather pattern or any sort of specific forecast should be considered along with memories of storm forecasts seven to ten days in the past. It is perfectly okay to show that there is a risk of a storm so that people can begin to become aware of it and follow the predicted trends.

However, as a media-using public and as a media industry, we are too often too quick to take or dismiss the latest wild guess as certain truth. Weather models aren’t very good and even the most experienced professionals aren’t good enough to know how severe a storm will be in a particular area before it hits in two or three days. Only then can forecasters begin to iron out the details of a winter storm.

John Wheeler is chief meteorologist for WDAY, a position he has held since May 1985. Wheeler grew up in the South, in Louisiana and Alabama, and cites his family’s move to the Midwest as being important in developing his fascination with weather and climate. Wheeler lived in Wisconsin and Iowa when he was a teenager. He attended Iowa State University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in meteorology in 1984. Wheeler worked about a year at WOI-TV in central Iowa before moving to Fargo and WDAY.