Open Letter to TV News/Weather People

[Non Sync]

It's not cold until the air starts to liquefy.

I hate the phase "your forecast." It's not my forecast, it's simply the forecast.

Almost 10 years ago when I was in Chicago, every time they went into winter storm watch mode, we only got a couple of inches. When we really got clobbered with snow, they were only predicting a few inches.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Don't you hate it when the weatherman has to stand in front of the map or 7-day forecast and POINT everything thing out to you and ends up blocking the thing he's trying to show you or block half the 7-day forecast so you still can't read it??!!

Don't you hate it when a channel has a "5 degree guarantee" contest where you mail in an entry for a jackpot drawing for whenever the actual temperature for the day is off + or - 5 degrees than the predicted temperature?? Every day the forecast is "diluted" so they don't have a likely chance of paying out the jackpot!

Don't you hate it when the other channel has a weatherman that is an "extremist" in his forecasting--either predicting really hot or really cold temperatures or excessive amounts of snowfall??!!

Don't you hate it when they issue a severe thunderstorm warning or tornado watch every time a flock of birds flies over dropping something??

Don't you hate it when the radar is TOO sensitive and shows all these storms blanketing the area in threatening colors but the rain or snow's NOT even reaching the ground??!!

Don't you hate it when they get "stuck" on using the same phrase or bad joke ALL the time??!! e.g. "Today's weather is more 'ert' than 'inert' as opposed to yesterday." or "Today we'll have sunbeams galore." Gimme a break already!!

 

[Tulin]

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.

Yep - I am in Australia, so I am referring to celsius. For example, here in Perth today it was 35(well, we are in the middle of summer)and that is MORE than enough for me. Christmas Day is looking to be about 31, but that is NOTHING compared to the 44 we got last Boxing Day. Now THAT makes me want to murder people.


Ah but all is well because in early March I head to New Zealand and their idea of late summer temps which are somewhere around 20 as a maximum.....YUMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dale]

Mysterion, you must be a Southern Californian. Every time it rains they go freakin' hysterical...

STORMWATCH! (with a close-up of a flowing gutter) "This just in... a strange hydrogen-oxygen substance in plummeting from the heavens contaminating millions!"

 

[Dale]

It's not cold until the air starts to liquefy.

I hate the phase "your forecast." It's not my forecast, it's simply the forecast.

Almost 10 years ago when I was in Chicago, every time they went into winter storm watch mode, we only got a couple of inches. When we really got clobbered with snow, they were only predicting a few inches.

I once read a sci-fi story about a guy who lived on Earth after the atmosphere had frozen and percipitated to the surface. He lived in a tent made of many layers of blankets inside a building by digging through the helium slick to the oxygen layer and boiling it over a fire he could never let go out. I don't remember much about the story...

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I love the weather forecasts. Great, camp entertainment for the whole family. Besides, only one man can tell the weather like it is:

 

[Locutus of Bored]

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)

Oh my. Today's TMI index indicates a warm front coming on, with a slight chance of morning dew.

Mysterion, you must be a Southern Californian. Every time it rains they go freakin' hysterical...

STORMWATCH! (with a close-up of a flowing gutter) "This just in... a strange hydrogen-oxygen substance in plummeting from the heavens contaminating millions!"

By the time they get done announcing that they have LIVE DOPPLER 7000 STORMSTALKER ACCUWEATHER MEGARADAR they're already 30 seconds into the report.

I always love the man on the street interviews when it's just a minor drizzle too. They raise the old grizzled reporter from the dead who used to be something back in the 60s but is now stuck asking people in the Inland Empire why they aren't carrying an umbrella in a light rain as if they're the aliens from 'Signs' or something.

 

[Maestro]

I get my weather from the local CBS station's website. No drama, no foolishness, just forecast, warnings, and radar.

 

[Jadzia]

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.

Back in the good old days of Received Pronunciation, they never used vulgar colloquialisms like 'bad' or 'awful'. That was when television presenting required etiquette, and we liked it that way.


Join my campaign to bring back RP.

 

[Lonemagpie]

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.

Billy Connolly says it best - "There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes."

 

[bigdaddy]

Oh I wish I still had the email.

I just remembers two years ago I sent a really REALLY mean email to NBC 22, wwlp.com, about how they were a bunch of assholes, and they were.

They would go on, predict like 3-8 inches of snow or something the day before. It would be snowing, they would change there forecast, the snow would actually be starting to end, change the forecast again! Then after the storm they took the last forecast they made, once all the heavy snow was over, and used that to say they predicted the right amount! It was 12-15 inches or something insane.

I mean they weren't even close and then they tried to brag they were correct!

 

[Jadzia]

I mean they weren't even close and then they tried to brag they were correct!

You should see my Google WeatherBug reports! Every hour or so when I'm online I glance at it, and see if there's any change:

-- It will be snowing tomorrow and 100% likely it says...
-- Now it will be snowing on Tuesday. Snow is not predicted tomorrow. So much for 100%! Plus it's going to be -4'C tonight.
-- Now it's going to be -2'C tonight and no snow all week.

And these are the typical hourly spaced forecasts!

I mean, it might as well be Mystic Meg predicting the bloody weather.

 

[sidious618]

I just watch the local forecast on the weather channel.

 

[Sakrysta]

I tend to just check the National Weather Service site for the day, and rarely do I even read the forecast. Usually I just click on the radar, see raining or not, maybe check the text to see the % chance of rain, and go from there. I confess to having a fascination with watching the little green/yellow/red blobs crawl across the screen trying to guage whether I can accomplish my business before the green overwhelms me.

 

[CommodoreKong]

One of my local stations will stay with the weather team until tornado warnings end, which can get very annoying towards the end of them when the storm is over but the're still talking.
I remember earlier this year they spent several minutes talking about how much they all loved the movie Twister while waiting for a tornado warning to end.

 

[John Picard]

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.

Back in the good old days of Received Pronunciation, they never used vulgar colloquialisms like 'bad' or 'awful'. That was when television presenting required etiquette, and we liked it that way.


Join my campaign to bring back RP.

A local weatherman here uses the term "unfreeze" (um, thaw ), and the word, "milder" (um, how about more mild?)

 

[Mysterion]

Mysterion, you must be a Southern Californian. Every time it rains they go freakin' hysterical...

STORMWATCH! (with a close-up of a flowing gutter) "This just in... a strange hydrogen-oxygen substance in plummeting from the heavens contaminating millions!"

Actually, I live in the Puget sound area of Washington near Seattle.

It's not like rain is a mystery around here, but you'd never be able to tell they way the tee-vee people cover it. It's gotten so bad, the local talk-radio statio nI listen to even makes fun of them.

 

[Trekker4747]

Local stations here now have a hard-on for beet-juice. The new ice-treatment they're putting on roads.

You'd think it was Jesus' sweat they coverage the stuff is getting.

 

[bigdaddy]

I mean they weren't even close and then they tried to brag they were correct!

You should see my Google WeatherBug reports! Every hour or so when I'm online I glance at it, and see if there's any change:

-- It will be snowing tomorrow and 100% likely it says...
-- Now it will be snowing on Tuesday. Snow is not predicted tomorrow. So much for 100%! Plus it's going to be -4'C tonight.
-- Now it's going to be -2'C tonight and no snow all week.

And these are the typical hourly spaced forecasts!

I mean, it might as well be Mystic Meg predicting the bloody weather.

I love when the Weather Channel does the same. EVERY night, not just some, but EVERY night during the "local forecast" they have a "Low - 14F". Yet they show the current temp, it's 13! So 13 is a higher number than 14!

 

[Trekker4747]

I mean they weren't even close and then they tried to brag they were correct!

You should see my Google WeatherBug reports! Every hour or so when I'm online I glance at it, and see if there's any change:

-- It will be snowing tomorrow and 100% likely it says...
-- Now it will be snowing on Tuesday. Snow is not predicted tomorrow. So much for 100%! Plus it's going to be -4'C tonight.
-- Now it's going to be -2'C tonight and no snow all week.

And these are the typical hourly spaced forecasts!

I mean, it might as well be Mystic Meg predicting the bloody weather.

I love when the Weather Channel does the same. EVERY night, not just some, but EVERY night during the "local forecast" they have a "Low - 14F". Yet they show the current temp, it's 13! So 13 is a higher number than 14!

It's called a margin of error or even "something" happened at the weather station to momentarily change the temperature.