Just sitting here watching it on TV and it seems to me that the WC is more “conservative” in predicting severe weather for my area than my Atlanta stations are.
I cite, for example, that in Atlanta, the salt trucks are already being prepared and a winter storm watch is out for the northern part of our state, but WC is focusing more on those states already “hit”, and are so far predicting only rain for my area of Georgia (Carrollton-Newnan).
Could be that I’m imagining this, though, so what do y’all think?
I think you’re probably right. Calgary is very volatile weather-wise, and the national weather channel is often behind on new developments here. Heck, we have snow on one end of the city and a bright, sunshiny day on the other end, some days.
I’ve often said that the local Atlanta stations must get a percentage of grocery store sales of bread and milk during the winter. If there is the slightest chance that a flake will fall, they mention it at every opportunity.
I think it’s just the local weathermen hedging their bets. If there’s a storm that they failed to predict, there will be traffic chaos, folks snowed in with no food; people will remember and curse their names. If they predict a storm and it doesn’t happen, it’s “well, we dodged a bullet there; now let’s go to Wayne with the sports.”
Last Saturday the local weather people predicted snow for Sunday – maybe an inch or so, nothing special – and high winds for Monday. New snow + high winds = blizzard conditions. Everybody knows that. But it wasn’t until early Monday that the weather people used the B word. By then it was too late. Hundreds of accidents (five deaths), I-35 and many roads closed.
I think if the weather guys had said “blizzard” earlier, people would have stayed home. The blizzard we had before this was worse --more snow and higher winds for a longer period of time – but I think because people heard “blizzard” in advance of the storm, they acted accordingly. There weren’t nearly as many accidents.
We depend so much on weather forecasts (to the point where we don’t think for ourselves), I’d rather they not be conservative when there’s a potential for severe weather.
That’s surprising, considering that The Weather Channel is based in Atlanta.
I’d tend to go with TWC, because they are real meteorologists on the air, while most local weather types are just pretty faces. Some of them might have the “Broadcast Meteorology” degree offered by Mississippi State U. Local forecasters who hold a degree in meteorology are rather rare.
I don’t pay much attention to local weather forecasters, and rely on National Weather Service and TWC (both online). I noticed several years ago that TWC forecasts are usually more conservative.
The weather channel seems to be more accurate. And they don’t piss me off nearly as much as the local forecasters - why does being a weatherman mean never having to say you’re sorry? I swear to god they would rather be set on fire than admit that they were off. It’s rather frustrating for them to predict an inch of snow in the morning, then by night be talking about the eight inches we got without for a second acting as though there was anything unusual about there being a seven inch discrepancy. The morning forecast apparently went into the ether, and they’ve forgotten about it.
Um. Sorry.
Anyway, the weather channel usually predicts more severe weather than the local forecast, and more often than not they’re correct. I guess that means the local stations are too conservative.
I have ranted about Scot Haney from here in the land of the Nutmeg … with his little screaming panic attacks on TV about weather conditions. Literally half an inch of snow overnight, and everything in the state is delayed for a minimum of 2 hours, and frequently services are closed [like the senior citizen ‘babysitting’ organizations] and og forbid we actually GET snow in FEBRUARY IN NEW ENGLAND, the horror if it all!!1!1eleventy! Not to mention clanging a cowbell and screaming 5 55 55 when it is 5:55:55 in the freakin morning, and pouting when someone muffles or makes vanish the cowbell…and singing, telling seriously lame jokes and prancing about like a jackass in general.
It is really a relief to get back to western NY, where if it snows the drivers slow down from 80 to 70 instead of to 30 for half an inch or a spritz of rain :smack:
Well, we get that here in upstate NY, ‘bands’ of snow coming off Lake Ontario, a screaming whiteout blizzard one minute, blue sky and sunshine the next, then another whiteout…The local weather just tells us ‘bands of lake effect’, the Weather Channel will actually show them on the radar every 8 minutes. (Unless they’re showing Yet Another Hour Long Show About Katrina, in which case you are out of luck until the hour is up.)
NWS has the raw data. They make the best predictions.
TWC has the best presentation. I *want *Alexandra. Though I’d settle for Nicole if I had to. Their forecasts? Oh yeah, forecasts, … lemme think here … … I’d say they’re a little spiced up compared to the NWS reality & the actual outcome.
Local weather? Fools whose job is to foment fear & panic while convincing you to watch their show for the must-have urgent decision-making information. No real weather skillz at all.
'Round here (Reno/Tahoe area) the local guys do a much better job then TWC. TWC pretty much ignores us all together most of the time, or makes wildly inaccurate predictions of “TEN FEET OF SNOW!!!”
Example: The “Winter Wollop” :rolleyes: recently deposited about 16" at mid-mountain Heavenly Valley. Whoopty-F*@%.
The local guys had a much tighter grip on reality. But I’m with LSLGuy otherwise on the, erm, uh… other thing.
It depends on you local weather. As a general rule, I’d say if the meteorologist looks like a pretty bimbo (of either sex), and doesn’t come across as having any particular level of weather knowledge, I’d go with the weather channel.
I’m fortunate that my local weather guy actually seems to know what he’s talking about. He’ll even explain meteorological concepts to us as he goes. When he does differ from the The Weather Channel, it’s usually for a good reason, even if it turns out he’s wrong.
The folks I work with here are a pretty good lot, in fact the chief meteorologist talked me right up behind a passing tornado one late night two years ago (on the phone driving the satellite truck… “What’s the cross street? STOP! It’s right in front of you!”) Got great video and went live by myself for a couple hours that night.
In the DC metro area a little swerve changes things in a big way. My home was expecting “a trace to 1” - last I checked we got 8".
I dabble in amature meteorology myself and I can say with absolute certainty that nothing is certain.
The blizzard of 1996 was predicted well in advance, we had plenty of time to ‘prepare’, and it lasted about a week. We have never been snowed in more than one day but that time it was three days because the snow kept coming and the plows couldn’t keep up. The snowbanks on either side of my driveway were literally over my head. This is why one should have an emergency snowed-in supply of food, medicine, pet food, t.p., coffee, soda, etc. in the house just in case.
