Weather Tidbits: The Norm MacDonald Rule

We’ll be discussing the Norm MacDonald Rule in this edition of Weather Tidbits. This unofficial meteorological rule came from Norman J. MacDonald, who was a famous meteorologist at WBZ in Boston from 1961 to 1977. He received his bachelors and masters in meteorology from CalTech and also served in the Navy and the Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1963. He performed research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for about 10 year, and has gained an accumulated history of weather patterns. The Norm MacDonald Rule states that whatever latitude the energy that produces a storm comes in at the west coast is where it should exit on the east coast at approximately the same latitude. This is a rule that is sometimes applied to forecasts by east coast meteorologists when tracking mid-latitude cyclones.