Sick of the false alarms

[Ice Man]

While I've always given forecasters some lenience, since obviously nobody can predict the weather 100% of the time, I'm getting really frustrated with TWC now. For the 4th bloody time this winter, they've been getting everyone riled up about a super east coast snow storm, and every time, it has gone out to sea. More interesting, is on the websites, the image they choose as a splash screen for the storm report, is what looks like a map depicting a Nor'easter low-pressure off the coast, when in actuality its a simple cold front heading Northeast (over LAND, not water).

What I think I'm starting to realize now, is that this isn't just bad luck with forecasting. This is probably intentional. TWC is a news station first, and a weather service second, and its really showing with how they present information. They're using the same scare, hype, and speculative reporting tactics that every news channel does, to maximize fear and keep people glued to the TV, when in actuality they probably are fully aware that there's nothing to worry about. Ever watch a news show for an hour for that news byte they promised at the very beginning, only to find out its a 2-second blurb about the most useless piece of info imaginable? Yeah, it's kinda turning into that.

 

[twcclassics]

TWC has hyped storms for years.

[Anistorm]

That's just pretty much what they are now. And blame NBC for it. Hate to break it to ya, but there's nothing you can do about it.

[TWCToday]

NBC cant be blamed for TWC hyping wx events. As Matt said its happened for years. It makes sense really. CNN/FOX/MSNBC hype every news event. TWC does the same but with weather. I would MUCH rather them hype weather than show long form. Gotta take the good with the bad

[Ice Man]

Well sure they used to hype the weather and why not, but not with this kind of uncertain advance warning. The superstorms of the previous century didn't start getting tons of attention until 1 or 2 days before impact, pretty much guaranteeing that the scary monster we were hearing about was indeed coming. Not to say that they didn't have big Hurricane events and such, but a Cat 3 Hurricane a few thousand miles out in the Atlantic heading west was simply something to keep an eye on. Today, something like that would get a catchy name like "Floridacalypse 2011" a week before the storm even has a chance at reaching the mainland.

It's not that they make a big deal out of storms, its that they make a big deal out of the impact of a storm before they even have a shred of a clue about what its doing or where its going.