Messages

406

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: June 23, 2013, 11:04:47 PM »

I'm back from my break with family.  Hope all of you are well during the first days of this summer.

After speaking with Tavores, the winner of Round 2 at Hartford, CT (KBDL), I have the Round 3 city ready for our forecasting contest:  Peoria, IL (KPIA).  We can start it next week in hopes that it will accommodate more participation this time.

What's the forecasting contest for?

Just for fun.   If you've ever wanted to test your forecasting skills or try it for fun, then we encourage you to participate!  You can get all the details and read the rules here.

407

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: HD feed on SD channel

« on: June 22, 2013, 12:32:10 PM »

In general, I think it's a good idea.  If TWC mandated the HD feed on SD channels, they would be able to use more of the screen during weather programming, instead of putting the weather maps inside the SD-safe boxes, which is a terrible waste of widescreen.

The downside, of course, is that not everyone has access to the IS2 yet, which would result in satellite feeds for many more people (which helps no one), or, if it's even technically possible, a bizarre merger of the HD feed with SD Stars.

I think this is a good idea too, but all your points are valid, Eric.  Don't a lot of other stations already do this?  The "blank space" on the weather maps on the HD feed is indeed a waste of space.  But, like you said, since not everyone has access to the IS2, I guess a lot more national feeds would show up.  I don't even want to think of the "outrage" that would result from viewers if this happened (assuming that LOT8s is still one of the top things they care about...)

408

Forecasting / Re: Round 2: Hartford, CT

« on: June 22, 2013, 12:26:39 PM »

Congratulations Tavores!
You are the winner of Round 2 of the TWCT/TWCC Forecasting Contest!  You may choose the city for Round 3, provided it is located in either the Central or Pacific time zone, and has a functioning ASOS station with an official NWS daily climate summary for the station, per the rules.  Patrick should be returning from his vacation sometime this weekend, so you can PM either him or me with your city choice, and we will get started with round 3 as soon as we can.

A very big thanks and good job to everyone who participated in this round.  I know we had a couple who couldn't finish, but Matthew and Craig, I hope you both have done well with your school work and other commitments and are able to join us again for future rounds.


Hartford, CT (KBDL) Day 10 Verification

High: 85°F
Low: 58°F
POP: 0%
Precipitation: 0.00"

409

Forecasting / Re: Round 2: Hartford, CT

« on: June 21, 2013, 11:43:13 AM »

Here is the Day 9 verification with results.  The verification for Day 10 and the winner of this round will be announced tomorrow morning.

Hartford, CT (KBDL) Day 9 Verification

High: 81°F
Low:  48°F
POP:  0%
Precipitation:  0.00"

410

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: June 21, 2013, 01:05:25 AM »

Well, welcome to summer everyone!   Hope you all enjoy the season.

411

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: June 20, 2013, 12:43:44 PM »

Where are Chris and Alex in this picture?  Is that the Global Forecast Center?  This was taken from the 10 PM ET hour of WCL last night, and I also noticed that Day Planner is in the same place this morning.  Is something going on with the "normal location" in the HD studio?

412

Forecasting / Re: Round 2: Hartford, CT

« on: June 20, 2013, 12:39:30 PM »

Craig, good luck on your exams, and I am sorry to hear that you've been having trouble with cyber-bullying.

Here is the verification for Day 8 (Wednesday, June 19, 2013).  Though a trace of precipitation was recorded, it counts as 0.00" and a 0% POP, which means, Tavores and Metarvo, you both nailed it.  You both had the same amount of error points for Day 8, but Tavores is still in the lead overall.

Don't forget to enter your forecasts for the final day (Day 10) before midnight tonight!  These forecasts will be for Friday, June 21, 2013, the first day of summer!


Hartford, CT (KBDL) Day 8 Verification

High: 76°F
Low:  55°F
POP:  0%
Precipitation:  0.00" (Trace)

413

Programming and Graphics / Re: TWC Greenlights 6 New Series in Time for First Upfront in 5 Years

« on: June 19, 2013, 05:16:46 PM »

In my opinion TWC should return to live weather programming 2pm-5pm instead of reruns of long form programming.
Leave the long form for evenings and overnight.
Maybe I'm wrong though I just can't believe there are that many people tuning in to reruns 2pm-5pm.

I don't think there are that many people tuning in to TWC at 2pm - 5 pm period.  Many are at work, so TWC probably finds that it makes more sense to show long-form than have live coverage.  Why have live coverage if relatively few people are watching?

414

Forecasting / Re: Round 2: Hartford, CT

« on: June 19, 2013, 12:21:08 PM »

Alright, the verification for Day 7 (Tuesday, June 18, 2013) is below.  Craig, again I am sorry, but I will have to assign you another penalty for missing your forecast for Day 8.  You all may enter your Day 9 forecasts for Thursday, June 20 before midnight EDT tonight.

Hartford, CT (KBDL) Day 7 Verification

High: 81°F
Low: 57°F
POP: 100%
Precipitation: 0.39"

415

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: June 18, 2013, 04:44:16 PM »

TWC started WCL 30 minutes early to cover a reported tornado in Denver.  It's a good thing too - I almost didn't think they were going to.

416

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: June 18, 2013, 03:24:37 PM »

Didn't someone not too long ago (I can't remember who) post about TWC having their credit downgraded. I think I recall within that small article mentioning how they as a company needed to borrow some money to pay off debts. I know the music department is an entirely different beast from what ever department(s) or whatever within the company that's responsible for the debt, but I would think if you're in debt and you're borrowing money, wouldn't a good cost effective initiative be to play in house production music instead of inquiring licenses to play mainstream musicians? I don't know how much licensing music for a company like TWC would cost, but I surely doubt it's cheap.

Well, that's kind of what Alex and I were talking about earlier, Tavores.  See the posts above and this post.  Now I don't know about an article, but Alex said he received feedback from LOT8s support saying their budget on music had "run dry" so that's why they weren't playing smooth jazz or vocals anymore.  I guarantee acquiring the licenses for this popular music is not cheap, so seeing that his post was less than two weeks ago and vocals are somehow back, I think we are all confused at this point.

417

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: June 18, 2013, 02:33:02 PM »

I have a great idea! How about having weather be the first thing on weather.com instead of a slide show of stories with some of them not even related to weather.

You do not know how much I have wanted this.  Heck, I have even sent them feedback at times asking why they have to have these stupid top-stories on "What is THIS?" or "They Did WHAT?" or "How Did THAT happen?" or whatever other crap they like to promote when there is something more important to talk about: WEATHER.  Again, I guess it's just a way of making money.  Let's just say I wish I was in charge of weather.com.

418

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: June 18, 2013, 12:50:57 PM »

Good grief, I wonder how much money TWC gets for decking their homepage out in these (what I think are) annoying ads.  Maybe that's the money they need to keep vocals on the LOT8s!

419

Forecasting / Re: Spring/Summer Weather Discussion Thread

« on: June 18, 2013, 12:40:56 PM »

Spring has indeed been crazy.  In Norman/Oklahoma City, weekly cold blasts from very strong cold fronts would drop us down from the 70s and 80s to the 30s and 40s.  We would pick up at least an inch of rain from these fronts as well.  At the beginning of May, when temperatures were in the 50s, we wondered if "spring" would ever arrive.  Well, it did - when winter-like temperatures finally ceased after cold fronts moved through and our highs stayed near or above normal, severe weather exploded in mid-May, causing two EF5 tornadoes to strike the OKC metro area within a week of each other.  Now, thanks in part to the weekly cold fronts and treacherous flooding rains on May 31, Oklahoma City has just a little under 32 inches of rain for the year so far, which is 15 inches above normal!  This is definitely good news, as the OKC metro is now out of the drought.  But what may be more "incredible" is that parts of the state (in the west) are still in an exceptional drought!  So spring has not treated everyone equally.

So far (in OKC), June is wetter than average, with temperatures right around normal.  Cooler-than-average temperatures have been balanced by warmer-than-average temperatures, so the mean comes out near 0.

420

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: June 18, 2013, 11:57:11 AM »

Vocals are back.

i won't be surprised if the Full Screen Locals are gone in the Fall with "Local Weather All The Time" so i'll just let the Vocal era run it's course.

I'm confused, though, because just a little under two weeks ago you said you had a source from the LOT8s support team that said TWC's budget towards the locals music had "run dry," so the vocals and smooth jazz were gone for what seemed like the foreseeable future until this "revamp" was done in the fall.  So I am surprised that vocals would have returned so soon if money problems were indeed the case unless they just got some random spike in revenue recently.