ABC11 First Alert Weather team is "certified most accurate" in the region for the 5th year in a row

The Academy doesn't give Oscars for the best weather, but a national independent research company does give an award for most accurate forecasts to one local weather team every year. This year, the ABC11 First Alert weather team won the award. ABC11 has won the award for 10 of the last 11 years in the Raleigh, Durham, and Fayetteville region.

The company that certifies local stations, WeatheRate, is an independent team of researchers and meteorologists that survey TV weather teams all over the country. They record each local team's daily forecasts including temperature, precipitation, and other weather metrics. Then, they compare those forecasts to what actually happened.

Each team is given a daily score based on how far off their predictions landed. Every February, the team with the lowest score for the year is awarded the WeatheRate seal as certified most accurate forecast. The scoring method is like golf.

The forecast tracking starts over in March for a a new year of measurement.