I wish that on-camera weather forcasters would go away! Unnecessary! Not only are they often standing in front of the part of the map that I wish to see, they are a distraction. I long thought that they stood in front of my part of the map, PA but, my wife went to CA for a few weeks, &,you guessed it, now their in front of CA! (not that weather in CA is interesting, it’s not) CNN now has voice over weather segments & the Weather Channel, too. I like them, sans on camera people…Do I have too much time on my hands, or what?
I only object to the waeatherman talking too much, or standing in front of the weather map(which may mean it’s too big to be of real use).
Carl: Have you ever seen Steve Rambo on Channel 2 News in Los Angeles? He doesn’t do those things.
I agree! Here in NC, the only time the local weather-geeks step from view is when the 5-day forecast is displayed on screen and of course, that means the weather segment has finished. Who needs meteorologists at all? All they do is read the printout from the computer model of choice. And they are not any better! Look at all of the forecasts associated with Hurricane Dennis!? There is no interpretation of the outside weather.
As a 10-yr-old, instead of a geology kit, like all of the other neighborhood kids had, I had a weather kit. I would take all of the measurements, align all of these factors (wind speed & direction, barometric pressure, humidity and temperature) on a decoder wheel(!), and it would determine the forecast. Everyone scoffed when I said it was going to snow. But we got out of school the next day at 10:00 am! Later I didn’t need the wheel. While managing a beachfront hotel, I used this “power” to impress the guests. One instance: “When is the sun going to come out?” I looked outside for moment and said, “1300 hrs.” It came out at 1255.
Why single out weatherdroids when the quality of TV news is so atrocious in general? Right this minute two of the three L.A. network affiliate news stations are showing a high-speed chase. Grand, but the chase is in San Diego.
Catrandom (so if you’re in, say, Salt Lake City and considering fleeing the law, you can be pretty sure we’ll be watching you in L.A.)
The thing that irks me beyond words is the “local radar” on the Weather Channel (its the only thing I watch that foolish channel for). The 3-letter designation for New Bedford sprawls itself right over the area I live in, so every time something is moving through the area, you can’t see it because of the huge “EWB” (or whatever it is) covering half the county. The weather guys around here are pretty good about not covering what they’re talking about. They are, however, bad about pointing at one thing and talking about another. “You can see this storm is moving through Newport” as he’s pointing at Providence (it may not seem like a big deal, but hey, little details bug me).
Jeremy…
I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine - Kurt Vonnegut
