Saturday, May 1, 2010

The "Weather Channel" Sinks to New Low

Like many severe weather enthusiasts, I watched the tornado outbreak unfolding across Arkansas and Missouri with great interest yesterday evening, particularly as tornadic cells began to move into increasingly populated areas such as parts of Little Rock and St. Louis. 

Storm Relative Velocity Image from LZK Radar shortly after 9pm CDT 4-30-10

While I had a clear understanding of what was going on via radar and other data, I naturally became curious at one point as to what coverage the Weather Channel was giving the event (heck, I thought they might even have Jim Cantore or another meteorologist on scene by this time).  You can imagine my utter disbelief as I dialed up the channel only to find Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey locking lips on some kind of watercraft!  Thinking I surely pulled up the wrong channel, I tried again, even a 3rd time.  Nope, the cable box was pulling up "The Weather Channel" alright, but it seems that some dope in the programming department was unaware that he worked at the WEATHER channel last night (and during a severe/tornado outbreak none-the-less).  I guess I should give him some amount of credit - at least the title of the movie had something to do with the weather ("Wind").

I am skeptical of most broadcast media (particularly "mainstream") anyway, but in the past I had always grown accustomed to being able to turn on The Weather Channel and at least seeing something relating to the weather situation at hand (even if I had to wait through a commercial break or something like that).  I am still amazed at what I saw last night.  I can only conclude that "The Weather Channel" has for whatever reason decided to turn away from what I thought was its core mission - providing weather information (particularly during severe weather episodes).  Or, perhaps I've misunderstood that core mission all along...

One final note to The Weather Channel senior management:  I'd suggest changing the name of your network to more appropriately reflect your current philosophy:  "The B-Movie Channel with Occasional Weather".

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Where did you get that storm relative velocity image from? That is incredible resolution! I don't like the whole "Flick and a Forecast" idea to begin with, and have been left watching Storm Stories or other shows during severe weather outbreaks before too.

bluecat said...

Utterly DESPISE Flick & Forecast!!!
AND the fact that TWC has become an entertainment channel w/that ridiculous Wake Up w/AL routine!!
Also, while I'm at this- what about the way they stand in front of the maps (esp. notice it relative to MS) and the maps are now so small I can't make out much usefull info at all!! I don't have a "big screen" tv and don't want one, but I guess that's what's becomming required for lots of stuff.

Rob White said...

Billy, that SR Velocity image was a snapshot of my GRLevel2 screen yesterday evening (you can download a trial or the full version of the program at www.grlevelx.com). I also use GRLevel3 but GR2 has the highest resolution...