Would you like to play tennis this weekend? Go for a hike? Hit the links? Chances are you want to know if the weather will cooperate. Too bad. Despite modern technology that's supposed to ensure accurate forecasts, you might be better off flipping a coin or visiting psychic Sister Faye.

Let’s say you don’t have a coin, or don’t feel like driving down to Sister Faye’s at Northern Parkway and Park Heights Avenue. So you check the TV forecast. Entire channels are devoted to the weather, so you have lots of choices. But who to believe? Each weather channel shows maps, radar and fancy graphics. Unfortunately, each has a different forecast than the one before.

Last week, my husband checked The Weather Channel’s Weather Scan on cable. Things looked bad for golf. It showed Saturday and Sunday would be a washout.

“That’s weird,” I said. “WBAL at 6 o’clock said rain on Saturday but not on Sunday.”

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So he checked WBAL’s 24-hour cable InstaWeather Plus. It called for cloudy skies but no rain at all.

WMAR’s Weather Net Digital showed sun and rain both days. WBFF predicted a 30 percent chance of rain on Saturday and 20 percent on Sunday.

As it turned out, it only rained overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. Saturday was beautiful. Sunday was cloudy.

This is downright baffling. Why is the forecast so unreliable? Isn’t meteorology a science?

We have a doctor friend who says if he were wrong in his diagnosis as often as weather people blow it, he would have lost his license 37 years ago when he started practicing medicine.

I have another friend who’s a physical therapist. He’s normally pretty sane, but between November and April, if you just mention the name, Tom Tasselmyer (WBAL’s weather guy), he goes crazy. He harbors suspicions that Tom predicts snow to boost ratings. Here's the problem: Every snowy forecast brings scores of patient cancellations. If my friend ever actually meets Tom, it could get very ugly.

In any case, this past Monday night, we checked one of the weather channels. It predicted rain next Saturday and Sunday. So, I did what any logical person would do. I made plans for a picnic.