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When a storm rolls through your area, odds are you’ll have days of warning and hour-by-hour information about what to expect. That accuracy is thanks to a global data network that turns real-time measurements into forecasts that can stretch weeks. But it wasn’t always this way.  Clare tells Teo how weather went from a guessing game to a precise science, saving lives in the process.  Have a question about how our world works? Want to know more about weather forecasting? Email the Control F team at [email protected]  Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: Archival copies of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on October 12 and October 13, 1962 Why an ‘exact date’ weather forecast headline isn’t what it seems, Met Office of the United Kingdom, 2023 How Reliable Are Weather Forecasts?, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Operational Weather Forecasting, Peter Michael Inness and Steve Dorling, 2013 A Deadly Wind: The 1962 Columbus Day Storm, John Dodge, 2018 Interview with Reid Wolcott, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Seattle Interview with Ted Buehner (a.k.a. Tornado Ted), meteorologist at the National Weather Service (retired) Interview with Cliff Mass, meteorologist and forecasting researcher at the University of Washington See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your credit score is your economic destiny. It determines where you can live, what you can buy, and sometimes even what job you can get. But how do credit bureaus come up with these all-encompassing numbers? Teo tells Clare about the data that credit scores feed on, and how little we really know about how they're calculated. Have a question about how our world works? Want to know more about credit scores? Email the Control F team at [email protected] Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: Creditworthy: A history of consumer surveillance and financial identity in America, Josh Lauer, 2024 Credit Access in the U.S., U.S. Census Bureau, 2025 Affordable credit poised to save consumers billions, Alex Horowitz, Pew Charitable Trusts, 2023  WA’s new ban on medical debt in credit reports at risk of federal override, Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard, 2025 Interview with Josh Lauer, Author of Creditworthy  Interview with Alex Horowitz, Project Director at Pew Charitable Trusts Interview with Maya Lau, Host of Other People’s Pockets  Interview with Jazmin, founder of Budget with Jazmin See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Control F is a podcast about data — hard, fuzzy, surprising, and sometimes unreliable data — and all the ways it influences our daily lives. In each episode, we dig deep on a topic and search through research, algorithms, and assumptions to bring you insights on how stuff works. In a world ruled by numbers, Control F reads between the (spreadsheet) lines to find the bigger story. Control F launches on January 14, with new episodes every other week.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.