Mother Nature went berserk last night from Chicagoland down to middle Illinois, western Indiana, and especially Jasper County, IN. We had what looks like (preliminary guess) an EF3 tornado that was actually on the ground for over 100 miles. More storms hit during the night, and it was raining hard on my way to work.
A first for me from Apple Maps: “Flood warning. Affected area ahead. Exercise caution.”
Oh, yeah, my OP. Our entire news was the weather in detail and the damage reports from all over the place. There was no regular news or sports.
I usually watch WGN’s news, in part because of their weather department. They were non-stop weather coverage from around 5pm last night until 10:30 or 11; they pre-empted their two hours of CW entertainment broadcasting to stay on the weather.
I can sense my wife salivating in the next room. She loves the weather. We record the local news so she can fast forward to it, and when we’re stuck watching it live, no matter how interesting the news is to regular people she says “come on, let’s have the weather already.”
She was happier when we lived in NJ, and not in the Bay Area where interesting weather is rare.
I typically listen to a Kankakee radio station while I work; they just mentioned that last night’s storm likely set a record for hail size in Illinois.
I’m fine with the local news being entirely devoted to weather in extreme situations like this. What angers me is the ABC/CBS/NBC nightly news has devolved into. A recent example (about a month ago): they wasted five minutes talking about some non-story like Savanna Guthrie’s mom’s disappearance. The second story was that there was going to be a rainstorm somewhere that I don’t live (any storm that involves New York or Boston is disproportionately likely to be discussed). Not even a remarkable rainstorm; just the fact that it was going to rain. This type of garbage is discussed every single night unless there’s an actual major story (say, a war breaking out).