Katie didn't say anything was weird...she was commenting on how much wetter we are than last year this time. You have to admit that we have had much more rain --- especially in the southern part of the state -- than we did last year. She's also correct about not needing a TV broadcast to tell whether or not it's going to rain based on what her hair does. Lots of people can tell in different ways -- their hands hurt, their knees hurt, etc. whether or not we are going to get rain. Whenever we have a low pressure system near us, I can tell because my right ear is extremely painful...it never fails. If my ear hurts a lot, I know we're going to get clobbered by t-storms.
I have to believe that before there were TV's, weather satellites, hurricane hunters and all the fancy gadgets we have today to predict weather, people could gage the weather based on their own instincts.
As for Bret being downgraded, I'm not that surprised since it wasn't that impressive of a storm to begin with...I'm just glad it isn't forecast to cause a lot of destruction.