Truth in snow reporting

[ta&idaho]

On the flip side, it is much easier to drop incendiary remarks and run untraceably on the iPhone app than on a forum which requires you to register. You can still hide behind the mask if you care to, but you now have a history of remarks by which I judge your credibility. Consequentially, I am much more willing to take serious the remarks of someone with an credible history.

Definitely agree with this.

 

[Rogman]

The question to ask is: Was there a "financial relationship" between the authors of the study and the iPhone app referenced in their paper?

 

[snowmonster]

I have both SkiReport and the North Face Snow Report as Iphone apps. I recommend the latter: straightforward report on accumulations and conditions and good forecasts. The snow totals and conditions it reports usually match what I actually observe on the hill. Actually, they tend to be on the pessimistic side. I bagged a trip to MRG on 2/26 because the app talked about rain at the base and high winds. There was actually some good skiing at MRG that day -- but the Single was shut down by the winds and the MRG weather guy also called for crummy weather. Pretty fair report.

 

[Chesser]

The question to ask is: Was there a "financial relationship" between the authors of the study and the iPhone app referenced in their paper?

That is the question I had when reading the news accounts--which have been popping up all season, with nothing new added. I can't argue with their data or method, but this conclusion they make about an iPhone app that's been around for a year is curious. Hard to believe economists are making that claim. I wonder if, in the actual paper, the iPhone thing is more of a hypothesis, and it's just being pulled out and emphasized by news reporters looking for a hook to close out their stories. Or maybe these economists are just really good at getting attention.

 

[billski]

Skireport.com responded to my cordial but admittedly strong response:

"Appreciate the feedback. We're working on cleaning up a bit of the
noise and clutter around first hand reports. In addition, the firefox
bug should be fixed shortly."

 

[ta&idaho]

I would be shocked if these economists had any ties to this iphone app or the iphone more generally. No such conflicts are disclosed in the report, and their academic interests are in the economics of deceptive advertising, not consumer electronics. The more central result from the study was that resorts reported more new snow on weekends, an effect which has nothing to do with the iphone app conclusion. The iphone app only became available late in the time window that they studied. They mentioned this iphone phenomenom because it seemed to offer further evidence for their hypothesis that ski resorts strategically exxagerated snow reporting, not because they were extolling the virtues of this particular technology.

Read the study, not just the news reports. At a minimum, read the abstract:

Casual empiricism suggests that deceptive advertising is prevalent, and several classes of
theories explore its causes and consequences. We provide some unusually sharp empirical
evidence on the extent, mechanics, and dynamics of deceptive advertising. Ski resorts selfreport
23 percent more snowfall on weekends. Resorts that plausibly reap greater benefits from
exaggerating do it more. We find little evidence that competition restrains or encourages
exaggeration. Near the end of our sample period, a new iPhone application feature makes it
easier for skiers share information on ski conditions in real time. Exaggeration falls sharply,
especially at resorts with better iPhone reception.

 

[billski]

Maybe in the off season we should do a review of skireport.com.

I browsed through it yesterday and found it does a pretty good job of capturing historical daily snowfall (although it's not as current as rsn.com) and it does have an interesting piece of trivia - last year's closing and opening dates.