Open Letter to TV News/Weather People

[Mysterion]

Hi there. Just tell us what the weather is going to do, all right? That's all we need. And you don't need to do it from the Eyewitness Action News Severe Storm Weather Tracker Center. Just stand in front of a map, okay? Quite trying to re-enact Twister or The Day After Tomorrow. Don't need the drama, just need the forecast.

Oh, and for the news anchors: enough with the jokes to the weather person about how they are somehow responsbile for the meteorlogical conditions outside. Not funny now, never has been funny. If you need to absolutely do something "light" in your news program just show the squirrel on water skis video again. It's not really funny either, but I can ignore that more easily.

 

[OmahaStar]

Seconded

 

[Hermiod]

I agree - also stop referring to the weather in terms of "good" and "bad". You might not like it, but rain is necessary for us to live.

 

[Starbreaker]

One of the forecasters here gets his laptop out and rolls his sleeves up and really gets into it. It's annoying.

 

[DRMidnite]

I'm with you guys on this. We have a "Virtual Weather Wall". Now that is annoying. It's made worse by the fact that weather guy (oh, 'scuse me, meteorologist) looks like Stan Laurel.

 

[Top41]

I hear you guys; it can be frustrating to hear them go on and on when you just want to know if you need a jacket tomorrow. At the same time, imagine reporting on the weather for 10, 20, 30, etc. years--you'd want to get creative about it, too!

I agree - also stop referring to the weather in terms of "good" and "bad". You might not like it, but rain is necessary for us to live.

Yeah, they really need to stop trolling precipitation.

 

[Hermiod]

I agree - also stop referring to the weather in terms of "good" and "bad". You might not like it, but rain is necessary for us to live.

Yeah, they really need to stop trolling precipitation.

It's not just rain, and maybe it's just a British weather person habit (sort of like getting pregnant three weeks in to the job ).

The average person's temperature scale goes cold, cool, warm, hot and not awful, bad, okay, great.

 

[John Picard]

When rain rolls into the area, please do not break regular programming to announce it. This is not an unknown, deadly weather phenomenon. I've lived through many thunderstorms before and understand that it is not because "the gods are angry with mankind". The same holds true for light sprinkles.

*IF AND ONLY IF* you are tracking weather cells that could be tornadic, only then should you break programming and hit the "Panic" button.

 

[Ethros]

I just watch the weather on Channel 5, and if Lara Lewington's presenting it, I really don't care what she's saying
(Google image search will be your friend)

 

[Smiley]

If I wanted the forecast and nothing else, there's plenty of other print, TV, and internet sources for that. I enjoy seeing the electronic representation of the predicted weather system. It lets me know what direction the storm is coming from and about how long until it reaches my part of the state. Some weather reporters do go over the top, but I don't begrudge them trying to add some variety to a pretty monotonous job.

 

[Trekker4747]

I hate weather reports, I mean I'm into weather and I actually understand most of the stuff, but I'm pretty sure the average person doesn't understand the concept of fronts and airmasses. I really wonder how much people are getting from all those sattelite images.

But worse than the weather report in the nightly newscast is the Severe Weather Coverage. A local station here will interrupt at 7:05PM and talk about the severe weather coverage until it's well outside of the viewing area often times pre-empting their own newscast!

Yes, reporting on severe weather is important so that people know but like the nightly report, I don't know how much people are gaining from the minute-by-minute tracking and following of the storm through the area.

Locations and arrival times for the storm should be enough which can be handled in a ticker or in a short interuption. We don't need the storm's mile-by-mile tracking for several hours.

And NOW they're doing the traffic report like the weather report! Seriously. They have a "traffic man" standing infront of a blue-screen graphical representation of the highways with graphical cars on it and he "reports" on all of the traffic problems! It's just like the weather report! It's absurd.

 

[Dayton Ward]

^ There are two stations here in Kansas City that go into full-blown Weather Meltdown Mode whenever "severe weather" crops up. For the amount of drama they generate, I expect to see Bruce Willis riding a big fucking rock that's falling out of the sky.

 

[Trekker4747]

^ There are two stations here in Kansas City that go into full-blown Weather Meltdown Mode whenever "severe weather" crops up. For the amount of drama they generate, I expect to see Bruce Willis riding a big fucking rock that's falling out of the sky.

I'm in KC too.


Two words:

Katie.

Horner.

 

[Tulin]

I agree - also stop referring to the weather in terms of "good" and "bad". You might not like it, but rain is necessary for us to live.

Oh thank you, THANK YOU!!!!

One of my greatest pet peeves, too.

I personally LOVE rain. I have what I guess must be called Reverse Seasonal Associative disorder because as soon as the cool weather starts leaving and the oppressive clear blue skies roll in for day after day and the horrible prickly heat of summer descends, I start to get down and depressed. I start to become lethargic and cannot do as much. In winter, however, I come alive and feel energized.

Thus, I HATE IT when dour faced weather people act like they are forecaasting the Apocalypse when they refer to the awful week of rainy cold weather coming up. What makes this worse is, here in Australia rain is not exactly plentiful and we NEED it DRASTICALLY.

Personally, when they talk about the lovely conditions and a nice warm 33, I want to rip their eyes out, because for me, 33 is DISGUSTING!!!!

 

[Trekker4747]

33 IS pretty damn disgusting and hardly what I'd call warm.

 

[bigdaddy]

NBC 30 in Hartford CT

A few years ago, maybe even 5 now, they would go on the air ALL DAY, I'm not joke ALL FUCKING DAY, and talk about how shity the weather was. They took calls and had people out in the way of the massive clean up that was going on. Send in your pictures!

I think that snowstorm they might have gotten 4-5 inches in Hartford. It's fucking CT, 5" is a minor storm!

A newer story was on The Late Show, they showed a clip of how terrible the weather was from some minor tropical storm, and that it was really windy and heavy rain. Then this jogger runs by and isn't bothered at all.

 

[OmahaStar]

Personally, when they talk about the lovely conditions and a nice warm 33, I want to rip their eyes out, because for me, 33 is DISGUSTING!!!!

Just so I understand, when you say warm 33, are you talking 33 Celcius or Fahrenheit?

33 C is about 91 degrees F, which isn't warm. It's about 2 degrees from the surface of the sun.

 

[Hermiod]

^The average surface temperature of the Sun is 5,500 degrees C. It'd take a fraction of that to burn our atmosphere off completely. I suggest that kind of weather could, therefore, be legitimately described as "bad".

 

[OmahaStar]

... like I said. 33 c is hot hot hot! lol

 

[Trekker4747]

91* is nothing.

That's a "warm" Kansas summer day.