Some farmers in the Spokane Ag Show audience have been coming to see Art Douglas for up to 40 years.

That loyalty is something the popular speaker, a professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., doesn’t take lightly.

“I’m talking to a weather crowd — people who already have weather on the radar screen,” he said. “I’ve always been able then to talk with them and get into some more detail with them as to why it’s happening. It’s not ‘This is the forecast,’ it’s the ‘why’ of the things that are being set up right now, and, based on an analog forecast approach, this is the most likely thing that’s going to happen.”

Douglas will present his forecast at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6. It is sponsored by the Washington Grain Commission.

If he were to speak to a broader audience, those in attendance wouldn’t necessarily get into the “nuts and bolts” of his forecast, or whether he’s right or wrong. The impact’s not as great, he said.

Farmers will follow the forecast, and have a sense of whether it will help their operations, he said.

Douglas particularly treasures the questions he gets, and the conversations he has.

“That’s very pleasing for me, because it’s not making a forecast, pushing a button and walking away from it,” he said. “It’s being able to know you’re helping people with their decision making.”

Douglas considers 19 different components in his forecasts.

He likens his presentation to science or teaching lectures. His hope is that the farmers in attendance go home understanding various atmospheric interactions, such as the impact of the ocean or the effects of sunspots.

“What I think is going to happen is that, as they watch the TV weather, they then say, ‘Ooh, this thing is shaping up like he was talking about,’” Douglas said.