One comment that I hear alot goes something like this: "THEY said it would rain today," or "I heard THEM say we're in for a hot summer." And I like to ask, who's "they?"

You can get weather forecasts from so many places these days - newspapers, radio, TV, the web - but if you trace the forecasts back to the folks who actually made them, you'd find relatively few sources. The NWS produces many of these forecasts - for example, that's where the Weather Channel gets theirs. TV stations that have their own meteorologists typically make their own forecasts, but many stations and almost all radio outlets get theirs from the Weather Service or from private forecasting firms, such as Accu-Weather. Then of course, there's the Farmer's Almanac ... But that's another story.

So the next time you catch yourself saying something like "THEY said it would be sunny today," ask - do you really know who "they" are?