Volume 2, No. 2. January 25, 2002
Weathering a non-storm
As his big week began, Andy Gallardo, manager of public relations for Six Flags
Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, perused Yahoo's weather site on the
Internet. The park's new, history-making roller coaster X was to make
its media debut that Thursday (THE
LOOP, January 11, 2002) and Gallardo was, naturally, hoping for good
weather.
"We looked at the five-day forecast, and it said, 'Sunny; Sunny; Sunny; Snow;
Sunny,'" Gallardo said. "There was a bright sun on every other day, and clouds
with snow on Thursday. We thought someone was playing a really cruel joke on
us." Not accepting Yahoo's forecast, Gallardo surfed over to the Weather Channel's
web site and saw the same forecast. "We checked some other sites, and all said
the same thing. My feeling was that there was no way it was going to snow."
But, he admitted, that was more wishful thinking than intuition. "We have a
history of having beautiful weather up to a media day, and then lousy weather
the day of the event." Rain dampened the openings of Batman The Ride
and The Riddler's Revenge, and a daylong downpour marked the Goliath
media event. But snow? "It's been about two or three years since we've seen
any on the ground here," Gallardo said.
Sure enough, that Wednesday the temperature started dropping, and by nightfall
clouds had rolled in and the wind had picked up. However, Thursday morning dawned
clear and warm, and when Gallardo checked the Internet weather sites, the icon
for the day was a bright sun. That proved the accurate forecast as the temperature
reached the mid 70s, not a single cloud crossed the sky, and nary a snowflake
appeared.