[QUOTE=Noone Special]
To be fair, that was probably for farmers who would really need to provide some sort of warmth for crops that are grown in generally frost-less regions, and cannot abide frost.
We used to get these warnings in Israel all the time – although at least here they’d say it’s “a message for the farmers.” I haven’t heard these messages on the radio for some years now, though; I think the information is disseminated using more modern methods than General Broadcast, nowadays.
[/QUOTE]
Even some of us non-farmers have gardens with frost sensitive plants.
I’ve even heard frost warnings in the midwest for frost occurring outside the usual season for it.
I can understand a frost warning. And I certainly can understand a tornado or flash flood warning and all that. What I don’t like is the execution. For people who are half-blind, nearly-deaf, and strapped down to the couch, these loud, obnoxious, screen-hogging announcements that go on forever (except during commercials) are ideal. But for the rest of us, I wish they’d just carve out time from the commercials. It doesn’t even need to be from the sold advertisements. If they’d just substitute the alleged public service announcement in place of their self-promotion spots featuring Andy Anchorman and Susy Sidekick acting like busy newspeople while a talkover begs us to watch them, there’d be no complaint from me.
But the warning we got the other day that prompted this pitting was a wind warning. Yes, a wind warning. Not a tornado. Not a hurricane. Just wind. It effectively knocked out the HD broadcast (these warnings are broadcast in standard def) for twenty minutes out of the half hour. And sometimes when they do that, the system is so jolted that it reboots. And if they can’t do it the way I suggest for such minor crap, then a simple small quiet crawler with a semi-transparent background for just a minute or so should suffice.
Besides, people can tune to the weather channel if they are gardners or farmers and have a vested interest in wind and frost. They also can use the Internet and the window.
[QUOTE=Billdo]
But Liberal, what you don’t realize is that is that the station’s Doppler 14 Billion radar will be able to tell you exactly where it is cloudy out.
Imagine that! With modern technology, we can tell where it is cloudy!
Think about it. In the past we had to actually go outside, or at least look out our window, to tell if it was cloudy out. Now we don’t have to get up out of our easy chair and the teevee will tell us it is cloudy. And not only that, with that nifty internet I’ve heard so much about we will be able connect and check for ourselves if it is cloudy.
I don’t see why you are so cynical about progress.
[/QUOTE]
I imagine giant sirens will go off, followed shortly by a womans voice repeating in a sing-song way, “Time for Tubby Bye-Bye! Time for Tubby Bye-Bye!”
Okay, regarding the KILLER FROST FROM HELL, this was in the Bay Area, where people don’t usually try to grow tropical fruits. (Unless you are my dad, who proudly showed me his orange tree last time I saw him. He insisted that if it couldn’t grow there, they wouldn’t have had it at the nursery. Okay, dad. I should write him and ask him how it’s doing.)
Around here even worse than the crawlers is that as soon as a snowflake falls many of the stations go into non-stop “Winter Storm Coverage!!!” We get treated to non-stop weather reports and on-scene updates on how many millimeters of snow have accumulated on the roads in a dozen locations.
[QUOTE=Baracus]
Around here even worse than the crawlers is that as soon as a snowflake falls many of the stations go into non-stop “Winter Storm Coverage!!!” We get treated to non-stop weather reports and on-scene updates on how many millimeters of snow have accumulated on the roads in a dozen locations.
[/QUOTE]
Same here. We actually got some snow (maybe an inch or two) after several no-show-snow events that had been hyped to death by every channel. But the one that seemed most likely to produce more than a dusting (but didn’t) had reporters on the scene at the salt pile showing how much was available to brine the roadways. Another was at the airport to show that air travelers needn’t worry because Precautions A, B, and C were already in place.
It was outright comical to see all this hype when Flake #1 had yet to fall in the state!
I suppose the TV crowd is all antsy not to let Katrina Snowstorm slip up on them.
[QUOTE=Kyla]
Okay, regarding the KILLER FROST FROM HELL, this was in the Bay Area, where people don’t usually try to grow tropical fruits. (Unless you are my dad, who proudly showed me his orange tree last time I saw him. He insisted that if it couldn’t grow there, they wouldn’t have had it at the nursery. Okay, dad. I should write him and ask him how it’s doing.)
[/QUOTE]
I live in the Bay Area. There are many frost sensitive plants other than tropical fruits, including (depending on time of year) wine grapes and ornamentals.
Not to say that TV announcements can’t be presented in an overblown manner.
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Same here. We actually got some snow (maybe an inch or two) after several no-show-snow events that had been hyped to death by every channel. But the one that seemed most likely to produce more than a dusting (but didn’t) had reporters on the scene at the salt pile showing how much was available to brine the roadways. Another was at the airport to show that air travelers needn’t worry because Precautions A, B, and C were already in place.
It was outright comical to see all this hype when Flake #1 had yet to fall in the state!
[/QUOTE]
We get that here, too, except they put a much more positive spin on it. Like, “Yay! Snow! Everybody go outside and pretend you’re in Europe!” And then the next day they’ll show footage of happy families making very very small snowmen from the 1/4 inch of snow that actually fell.
