Bogus Weather Hype

Jay Honeck wrote:

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

Yet another reason to be glad I don't watch TV.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

Viperdoc wrote:

We had the same doom and gloom reports of people running to the stores to
hoard bread and batteries, since we have up to three inches of snow forecast
here in eastern Wisconsin!

Yeah. Here it's bread, eggs, and milk. I wonder what it is about impending
snowstorms that causes this insane desire to make French Toast?

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

"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!

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

"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!

Har! Har!

Jay, (gasping for breath between chortles of hysterical laughter.....) you should see what happens up here in the
north end of California's share of the Mojave Desert when it snows. Honest, it does that every three or four years.
Back in '83... why, we had ten inches!
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.
Yep, school was dismissed. The city declared a skeleton workday. Half the Navy employees failed to show up for
work. A few days later, a citizen wrote a letter-to-the-editor condemning the Highway Patrol for not establishing
emergency escorts on the highways.


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. It is a hoot to watch the wx
forecasters with the live 'outside' reporters bundled up for the frosty 50° temps. They were getting so wet their makeup
was running. There were wreaks all over the place, pretty amazing ( I used to love it when it rained; I could fly the
car so to speak).

I concur with the other writers statement about the liability thing. It is also better for the stations to keep you
glued to the screen...

Richard Russell wrote:

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.

I went to elementary school in the midwest (ND) in the late '50s -
early '60s and I don't think the system for school closings was
any better then.

We had a rather predictable alternating-storm ritual. The first
storm would be forecast but no schools would close despite
limited visibility in the morning and rapidly growing drifts.
Finally around noon the storm would be at its peak and the
schools would be declared closed. The town had few school busses
so parents were asked to come pick up their kids, but most fathers
were stuck at work with the only family car. So most of us were
shuttled into the auditorium or gym and watched old movies
while waiting hours for a ride home. Naturally the school
officials were deluged by irate phone calls.

Then there would be a forecast for another possible snowstorm.
Schools closures were announced as soon as a few flakes fell
early in the morning. By 10 am or so the clouds dissipated,
the sun came out, kids had snowball fights on the school
grounds. School officials are again deluged by irate
phone calls.

Repeat until spring.

Bob Gardner wrote:
Do they shut down programming, and have a talking head taking calls
from the
local area?

We had a storm that passed through AZ on Mon and Tue that was
generating that kind of hype. "Weather Alert"s every 15 min.
Granted, it was a good sized weather system that brought some much
needed moisture to the region. But, all of the hype was just a bit
over the top. Last night I watched 15 min. of a half-hour newscast
devoted "Storm Coverage". What it really amounted to was the fact that
it rained a few inches in some locations and snowed a few feet on the
tops of the mountains. I think the effect is brought on by what is
called a "slow news day".

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

ROFL! Yep! And then they have reporters, "out on the scene" with their
faces pointed into the wind acting like they are in a real blizzard sticking
rulers into the snowbanks that the plows have created multiplying the actual
snowfall by an astronomical number. Every time I see one do that I think to
myself that I'm glad I'm not married to that idiot or their idiot producer.
I wouldn't want to be seen in public after acting that stupid for millions
of viewers.

CNN actually had a story about how one of the northern midwest states, North
Dakota or Minnesota I think, was going to use a radar type device to
"officially" measure snowfall. Sheesh! Does it really matter?! Last I
heard, the snow usually melts in the spring anyway.

Jim



"Bob Gardner" wrote in message
...
Do they shut down programming, and have a talking head taking calls from
the
local area? "We have Joe from Bothell on the line, and he says that there
is
a half-inch of snow out there!" "Chris, from Bellingham, is on the line.
How
bad is it up there, Chris?" "It's snowing, but it's not sticking." "Now
let's switch live to our Mimi Linguini who is monitoring the freeway. Any
accidents yet, Mimi?" "No, but slush is beginning to collect on the road
surface." On and on ad infinitum. Urp.

Bob Gardner

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

"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.

It all depends.
Here in Columbus Ohio, the television stations coverage runs a 60 mile
radius, +/- a few. Thats 120 miles difference in the coverage area.
Two weeks ago, the storm that dropped 10 inches on communities ten miles
west of Interstate 71 coated the communites east of Interstate 71 with
heavy ice. That ice knocked out the power to 300,000 people some for up
to 8 days. The total width of the precipitation band was less than 50
miles. The precipitation tracked southwest to northeast. In the
southwest corner of Ohio, 70 miles away, snowfall ranged from 12 to 20
inches. Again, it was a very narrow band of precipitation.

We have had steady rain for the last three days. The temperature
difference between Columbus and Findlay (40 miles northwest) was 20 degrees.

Ohio has some interesting geographic features which create local weather
effects. Water to the north (Lake Erie), water to the south (Ohio
River), hills to the east, flat land to the north and west. Interstate
70 is commonly a dividing line between dry and precipitation and rain or
snow, or snow and ice.

Do the air heads hype it? Of course. But then again, they are playing to
a broad audience.