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Freezing forecast, then plus one on day seven

Ice clings to the window and the snow keeps falling. Inside, a couple sits close by the fire, and nobody is going out there. more

"I'm not shoveling again," one of them says. They could call that weird kid, except he has already been called, and he says he has had it. So Rob turns to the computer to look for any good news in the forecast.

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With ice on the window, the couple settles in close and refuses to go outside.

The whole five-day forecast is freezing. Day six is freezing. Then she asks about day seven, and Rob reads it out. "Plus one." They repeat it to each other. "You wait so long for something like this."

Over at Environment Canada, a forecaster explains that plus one. You will often see one near the end of the seven-day forecast, he says, and it's there on purpose, "to keep you from going to dark places mentally and possibly destroying property."

A middle-aged man wearing a light purple patterned dress shirt, a wristwatch, and standing in an office setting with another partially visible person behind him. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Ice clings to the window and the snow keeps falling.

Back on the couch, the plans get big. He might take an ice pick and chisel open the back gate. She might buy toothpaste and soap. "Personal hygiene. I forgot about that."

The forecaster, meanwhile, comes clean. His office does not know if it'll really be plus one. Seven-day forecasting is "kind of a sham anyway," and anything past day five "is just throwing darts." He might as well give everyone a reason to hang on.

A man and a woman smile close together, the man looking slightly upward, the woman partly visible beside him. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
The forecaster admits it is a guess, but the plus one keeps the couple smiling anyway.

Sure enough, Thursday isn't plus one anymore. It's minus 15. The couple checks Friday, and there it is again, plus one, so she's going to wax the car. Environment Canada gets a new motto to match. "Cloudy with a chance of making stuff up."

People who live through long winters say no sketch gets it more right. Plenty of them admit they still scan the long forecast for that same plus one.