# News coverage of weather events **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381 "2014-01-21T17:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381/21 "2014-01-22T20:34:30Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > It depends strongly on what is unusual for the area. Here in the Bay Area the first rain of the season gets excessive coverage. Given our current drought a bit rain is going to get coverage also, and if it ever snows, even a fraction of an inch, it would be wall to wall. On the other hand anything less than a blizzard in the mountains gets no or very little coverage. > > In Louisiana any rain short of a hurricane got nothing, while a tiny bit of snow once was a big story. Back in 1994/1995 when we had an incredibly snowy winter in NYC, by February a 12 inch snowfall wouldn’t even rate an extra 2 minutes of weather coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381/22 "2014-01-23T00:11:59Z")
> [@UncleFred](#): > > It’s not just the weather - it’s everything they do. Everything is “Breaking News!” no matter how trivial and almost anything the least bit beyond the usual daily mayhem will get extra coverage. The goal is to keep you glued to the TV and watching the commercials. Just recently in Melbourne we had 4 days over 40c and the news service described it as “unseasonable weather” No it’s not!! it’s the middle of summer here. I could live with “unusual” but not unseasonable. Then of course they blamed it on global warming. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381/23 "2014-01-23T00:13:17Z")
Here in Boston, it seems as if the stations are trying to one-up the others. “Hey, channel 5 is forecasting 10 inches, we should forecast 12”. A major hype here yesterday was an expected 10-12 inches of snow overnight. All of the surrounding towns cancelled school by 8pm last night. Our superintendent elected to make the decision this morning. When only 2 inches of snow fell, our town still had school. This evening’s news consisted of 2 1/2 minutes of Wellesley-had-school-while-no-one-else-did. If they can’t talk about the weather, they find something other molehill to turn into a mountain. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381/24 "2014-01-23T00:48:47Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_York](#): > > Just recently in Melbourne we had 4 days over 40c and the news service described it as “unseasonable weather” No it’s not!! it’s the middle of summer here. I could live with “unusual” but not unseasonable. > Then of course they blamed it on global warming. Not even unusual. The weather system pattern underlying that has no particular season… its unlikely to occur in winter. The occurrence of that pattern has a higher temperature at high summer, of course. Melbourne gets cooked like that for a few days each summer , as far as I can recall. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381/25 "2014-01-23T01:07:46Z")
We don’t get hurricanes, or floods, or significant earthquakes here. What we do get is snow and cold in the winter, and heat and humidity in the summer. Really, the weather gets the same amount of coverage every day. On the local news there’s a brief overview a couple of minutes into the program, and then about 5 minutes of prognostication at 20 past the hour, and then another overview at the end of the program. It’s been this way forever. The only time this changes is if something like a severe ice storm is predicted: then it might be a leading story. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381/26 "2014-01-23T01:14:14Z")
My favorite is the live breaking exclusive reports from the salt storage building. That’s what they do here if the snow hasn’t actually arrived yet. If there’s a bad thunderstorm, they also report from some random intersection where you can see the lights swaying dramatically in the wind. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381/27 "2014-01-23T01:26:45Z")
It pretty much takes double digit snowfalls here (CO) to send the reporters out to cover it. Otherwise, it’s just handled as normal by the regular weather and traffic people. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381/28 "2014-01-23T01:54:04Z")
One reason is for local news many people pick which channel to watch based on the weather coverage. It’s a very big driver of ratings. About 7 years ago here in NC we had a hurricane off the coast but it did not come ashore. But the local news people spent 4 hours covering this non event. They would have kept covering it , but at 12 football was on so they finally gave up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-coverage-of-weather-events/679381.md?page=1)