Bogus Weather Hype

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

I think, probably, that the weather and news people really don't have any
other choice but to over-hype. If they down played the forecast, and it
ended up being worse, they'd be burned at the stake.

--- Jay


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"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
. ..

"Icebound" wrote in message
...

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:CgZCd.620242$wV.514014@attbi_s54...
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"

Well, this particular storm may have affected Iowa a little less than
they
expected, but it is not *ALL* hype.

....snip...
This is a *significant*, though certainly not an exceptional, storm, and
some concern was warranted. Still is, for the people to the northeast of
it
... LIKE US!!...



It's winter in the Midwest. Snow and ice are the norm and sometimes it's
rain, that's why it is called winter. Several inches or even a foot of
snow
hardly qualifies as a "storm."



Maybe not..., but it depends on your perspective... Give it any name you
want, but nine inches at O'hare does appear to quality as "significant".
Even if you can call it the "norm", it still qualifies as worthy of warning
of widespread disruption:

http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/top...006103936.html

"Blueskies" wrote in message
om...

"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
om...
snip

I wonder how our ancestors survived all these deadly weather attacks
without
the benefit of modern media warnings.



They didn't!


Sure they did....

When it was winter, they *dressed* for winter... all of the time.... and not
in fancy topcoats, low shoes and thin gloves, with no hat.

They travelled by a means and at a speed that were suitable to the
conditions.

And they knew enough that there was nothing so urgent that it could not wait
for a day or two and be done later... so they stayed put until the weather
improved.

I agree although we got 11" of snow from the storm. Still I think the most
fun was that the Chicago news crews went out on the expressways to show that
they were all moving normally and ended up causing a huge gapers block that
doubled travel time. The news people are now covering a story about how news
crews affect traffic, Geesh!

In the Chicago area we get an average of almost a foot of snow in January.
Well we hit our average in a 24 hour period, worth mentioning but hardly a
major news event, after all it snows every January in Chicago since the
Silurian epoch!

But we have 24 hour news and weather so they have to talk about something,
lord knows they could not actually cover something in depth so just make
hype out 1 or 2 things.

Scott

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"I can accept that Bush won the election. What I have a hard time
swallowing is that I live in a country where more than half the
population is willfully ignorant, politically obstinate, religiously
prejudiced, and embarrassingly gullible."

-------------------------------------
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:CgZCd.620242$wV.514014@attbi_s54...
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!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message ...

"Blueskies" wrote in message
om...

"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
om...
snip

I wonder how our ancestors survived all these deadly weather attacks
without
the benefit of modern media warnings.



They didn't!

So how did YOU get here?



I'm here...Where?


;-)

"Nathan Gilliatt" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Blueskies" wrote:

We did the So. California to visit grandma and grampa for Christmas last week
and were greeted with the severe winter storm warnings. It must have rained
a whole 3-5 inches the entire time we were there. [...] There were wrecks
all over the place, pretty amazing

The thing about Southern California is that a foot of rain is all they
get in a year. The roads have a buildup of oil and muck that doesn't
wash off with the first drops, so the roads are slippery until it rains
enough to wash them off. The really scary part is the runoff into the
channelized rivers, which are dry until they flood. Then they run fast
and furious, and you can't just climb out the side if you fall in. Lots
of drama for the fast-water rescue teams.

I thought I saw much higher rainfall totals for SoCal last week, too.
But I did get a chuckle when our local (NC) news picked up the story of
snow in SoCal, near LA--without mentioning what, exactly, I-5 does north
of the LA area...

http://www.thealpacastore.com/grapevinecam/page2.html

The funny thing is they already had the rain earlier to wash the roads off. The flood control is much better now than it
was back in hte early 70's - there was very little 'flooding' under the overpasses.

I know what you mean about the Grapevine - sort of a sleeping giant. I remember trying to get an old '59 microbus up
that grade, down to second gear with big rigs passing us...

"Colin W Kingsbury" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Casey Wilson" N2310D @ gmail.com wrote in message
news:_b_Cd.12923$1U6.6740@trnddc09...

Two years ago, about four inches fell, and stuck, just before
sunrise.
Would you believe about one out of six or seven cars rattled down the
street
with chains! Some of those didn't think about what that extra eight inches
or so of chain was going to do to the fenders, if they didn't tie it down.

Chains!? Where do they get them? I grew up in upstate NY, on a steep dirt
road that often iced over, and I don't think we even owned a set of chains,
let alone put them on cars.

-cwk.



We never use them here (Kalamazoo, MI) either, but the California CHP will not let you through some of the mountain
passes in 'severe weather' without them on...

"Blueskies" wrote in message
. com...


We never use them here (Kalamazoo, MI) either, but the California CHP will
not let you through some of the mountain passes in 'severe weather'
without them on...
My stunt when the snow is light and dry is to put the chains on at the
required point, drive until I'm out of sight and have safe room, then take
the things off. Sometimes, infrequently, they are helpful.

"SFM" wrote in message
...

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-----------------------------------
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"I can accept that Bush won the election. What I have a hard time
swallowing is that I live in a country where more than half the
population is willfully ignorant, politically obstinate, religiously
prejudiced, and embarrassingly gullible."

I love how Democrats love democracy...but only when they win.

Jay Honeck wrote:

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

Yes. For this reason I now use only the web for meaningful forecast
information. For excellent analysis of the synoptic situation and an
unhyped forecast, check out

http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/textversion/states.html

Click on the state, then "forecast discussion", then scroll down to the
area of interest (there are separate forecasts for each "zone" within a
state). This comes from NOAA meteorologists whose forecast drives what
the TV weather-person is going to say anyway.

www.wunderground.com

Type in the 3-character airport identifier or city,state and get the
current forecast. No fuss, no hype. Also has local and regional radar
that can be put into motion. With all this, I don't even bother with
the TV forecast any more.

Forecasts from the numerical models is available at

http://weather.unisys.com

The "eta" and "avn" models are the primary resources for 2-3 day
forecasts, and "mrf" model for longer forecasts (up to 9 days). The
output from these models forms the basis of much of the discussion in
the "iwin" site mentioned above.

Jim Rosinski