I agree that keeping a weather sense about you is also a survival skill, and I agree that modern technology sure helps out a lot. But, in the spirit of "Hey, you crummy kids, get off my lawn," I feel obliged to point out that, way back when, forecasts were at best a shot in the dark, accurate only in the sense that the Farmer's Almanac was accurate.

One of the early books I bought (after Colin Fletcher's original Complete Walker) was a book about predicting weather in the backcountry. It was very heavy on cloud shapes and wind shifts, and what they told you about coming weather. I never did get it all committed to memory.

Now, who else can I distract with stories about the good old days....