To this day, I still wonder why watch/warning maps aren't shown during the LOT8s.
The Stars have always had this information in text form. The WeatherStar III and 4000 had it at the beginning of the Local Forecast pages, and the XL and IntelliStar have it on a separate Weather Bulletins page. Would presenting it graphically be as efficient as the text page? I personally don't think so. Not everyone would know (believe it or not) where their county is actually located on a map and different watches/warnings/advisories might overlap, making it harder to interpret a map. Personally, I prefer the text pages to the maps that I see on the national HD local forecast.
See, having the text is great for the beginning of the LOT8s but if you show the local map with warning polygons on it, people are able to see the cities affected by the storm. This allows for showing however many valid warnings instead of just one item at a time, which wastes a LOT of time. Notice on the attached image how many watches/warnings can be shown...while if it were in text form, this would take 15 minutes to run.
I like reading the warning text as well but it's not practical for television viewers. Also keep in mind that the national maps are more regional instead of the area that would be shown on your individual IStar. A perfect method to show current alerts in a graphical form.
