Bogus Weather Hype

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 21:48:18 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Is it just me, or does it seem like weather forecasting has gone off the
deep end?

Once again, we've been deluged with "Winter Storm Warnings" in the Midwest
that have turned out to produce a few inches of snow. As one station
(primarily the Weather Channel) starts to hype the coming "huge storm" all
the local stations feel compelled to jump on the bandwagon. They, in turn,
start running live segments of "Doppler Radar" and serious talking heads
showing all of us that it is -- *gasp!* -- actually SNOWING outside!

Imagine! In Iowa! In January!

Then, the inevitable school closings follow, as the head of the school board
is showed wringing his hands on live TV, pining for the "safety of the
kids." This is followed by dire warnings not to travel unless "absolutely
necessary"...

Meanwhile, the storm peters out after a few inches of snow, the kids play
outside all day, the malls are packed, and the adults laugh it off as just
another screwed up weather forecast.

Sorry, but this situation seems to have NOTHING to do with meteorology. I
took weather classes in college, and have been a keen observer of it all my
life. I was able to take one look at the radar and satellite pictures, and
knew immediately that they were blowing sunshine up our butts yet again.

I think it's all about ratings, and the public is being misled on a grand
scale, at an annual cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost
productivity. Worst of all, NO ONE is taking their warnings seriously
anymore (except the schools, who love the paid time off), so when we really
DO get hit with a blizzard, no one will be prepared.

When I was a kid in Wisconsin, if they had closed school every time we got 3
inches of snow, we'd have had the whole winter off!

You've addressed one of my pet peeves. The weather
reporting/forcasting in the Philadelphia area (and everywhere else,
probably) is enough to make you sick. Hey, maybe that's what happened
to you!

At the risk of sounding even older than I am, I don't remember getting
very many days off from school in New England when I was a kid. And
we got a lot of snow. We walked to school, uphill both ways.

When we get a "big" storm now, they have all day coverage. You can
actually sit there all day, if you want to, and watch the storm on TV.
It's not only the weather either. I can no longer stomach the local
news shows at all.
Rich Russell