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In weather, timing is everything I'm eating breakfast the other day when the guy comes on the radio (KROG) and gives the weather report. He says it's supposed to be in the high 70s or low 80s on Sunday and Monday. When I check the forecast in the Mail Tribune, it says it's only going to get up to 68 on those days. Why the big discrepancy in the two reports? -- Robert J., Ashland You want spring weather forecasts issued 12 hours apart to match? You don't ask for much, do you? R. Charles Snyder, operations manager at KROG, says the radio station takes its forecast directly from the National Weather Service Web page. The weather service updates those forecasts every six hours -- usually around 4 p.m., 10 p.m., 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. You didn't say what time you heard the radio forecast, but it could have been just an hour or two old, six hours at the worst. The Mail Tribune gets its weather information from AccuWeather, a commercial weather information source in State College, Penn. AccuWeather creates custom newspaper weather pages. Climatologist Paul Mount says Accu-Weather forecasters prepare the Mail Tribune's basic forecast during the afternoon of the day before the paper is published. That's the forecast you get the following morning, unless something changes so dramatically that forecasters update their predictions. Mount notes that spring weather can be especially variable. "Yesterday it was 80 degrees here," he said on Monday, "and today it's about 50." Snyder, at the radio station, says the disparity you saw doesn't surprise him. "In defense of you guys, you go to press around midnight. How many times can Mother Nature change her mind in a few hours?" By the way, Robert, just how hot was it that day? ("Since You Asked'' is a daily feature in the Mail Tribune that answers questions from readers on virtually any topic of general interest. To submit a question, e-mail us at [email protected] Please include your name, address and phone number for verification. If you have specific questions about our Web site or other questions about the Mail Tribune, please send them to [email protected] ) Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA