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Stick to the Weather!

V

vibe

Yesterday at 5;20 PM EST we were having a thunderstorm here in central MA. It was not severe but a pretty good one. When I turned on the Weather Channel (on cable) to get some local weather, I was instead "treated" to another rerun of "Forecast Earth" instead. Sometimes folks want to know what to expect in the present! No local weather until 6 PM.
The time of the day is when thunderstorms are ususally most prevalent and the time of the year (May) is when weather can be at it's worst, particularly in the Midwest. Some questions"
Do y'all rely on local stations TWC, or a weatherradio for your local weather?
Should TWC stick to their original mission?
Shouldn't shows such as Forecast Earth be aired at other, less volatile times of the day/season?
When weather is particularly severe in many locations, shouldn't these shows be eliminated/preeempeted at the very least? (I've seen these shows aired at timed where there are multiple severe thunderstorm and/or tornado warnings in effect)
 
vibe said:
Yesterday at 5;20 PM EST we were having a thunderstorm here in central MA. It was not severe but a pretty good one. When I turned on the Weather Channel (on cable) to get some local weather, I was instead "treated" to another rerun of "Forecast Earth" instead. Sometimes folks want to know what to expect in the present! No local weather until 6 PM.
The time of the day is when thunderstorms are ususally most prevalent and the time of the year (May) is when weather can be at it's worst, particularly in the Midwest. Some questions"
Do y'all rely on local stations TWC, or a weatherradio for your local weather?
Should TWC stick to their original mission?
Shouldn't shows such as Forecast Earth be aired at other, less volatile times of the day/season?
When weather is particularly severe in many locations, shouldn't these shows be eliminated/preeempeted at the very least? (I've seen these shows aired at timed where there are multiple severe thunderstorm and/or tornado warnings in effect)
Click to expand...


FWIW, I have seen TWC break into programming if there was a widespread enough severe weather outbreak. The key word here is widespread.

Having grown up and lived in Texas and now living in Ohio, I always keep a weather radio and/or scanner with the WX freqs programmed into it. Between the WX radio, local radio (when they're actually live and local), local TV outlets and NWS websites online, I suppose I don't really need TWC to tell me there's a tornado coming.

Short answer: get a WX radio. :)
 
My Sony walkman has the weather band and i have desktop weather from TWC so I use that mostly i hardly ever get my forcast from ym local news stations.
 
Isn't there a scroll bar underneath the programming with all the weather info anyway?
 
1069_KIFR said:
Maybe the Weather Channel is starting to go like MTV. Do you see that many music videos on MTV?
Click to expand...


LOL

And I thought I was the only one that had noticed that.
 
DToTheJ said:
Isn't there a scroll bar underneath the programming with all the weather info anyway?
Click to expand...

On the newer WeatherStar computers (the computer installed at the cable headend that displays the local forecast) called the Intellistar, it allows for The Weather Channel to break away from the main national feed to provide severe weather information or other seperate programming to a certain area.

Most cable companies have the Intellistar. Smaller companies will have an older version (4000 or XL).

A good source for info: http://www.twcclassics.com
 
I had the same complaint last December/January. You see, both New Mexico and Colorado were getting ungodly amounts of snowfalls and both states where shut down entirely, thousands, if not hundreds of thusands stranded along highways and at airports etc. Did you hear about it on The Weather channel? NOPE. When they weren't being the usual east coast biased selves, they had junk science programs on non-stop. No mention that Albuquerque set a brand new snowfall record on New Year's Eve or anything like that.

Needless to say, I now only get my weather from NBC Weather Plus(who superbly covered the storm I mentioned during their national segments) and NOAA weather radio whenever the local news isn't on,
 
Marc-that's my point; on these specialty shows, Forecast Earth for example, you don't get the local weather on the 8's. Although there may and usually be a scrolling at the bottom of the screen for a severe storm, you don't get to see the local radar to see how hard you're gonna get hit. I'm not too concered with global warming when Mother Nature is bearing down AT THAT MOMENT.
A sidelight; when there is very severe weather forecast (at night in particular) and one doesn't have a weatherradio but does have TWC on cable, it may be sensible to sleep in a room w/ a TV where one can have the TWC on; those loud beeps (for locally severe weather) will usually wake one up and provide some advance warning of whether one is in the storm's path. Of course it would be nice to get a local radar fix ASAP w/o having to wait until one of their goofy shows are finised. But at least the beeps give a warning and one can tune quickly to their local channels if TWC is not sticking to the weather.
 
Yep---I used to be a real Weather Channel freak, but all the evening "reality programming" cured me of that. Now I get my forcasts from NBC Weather Plus or one of the other local's digital sidechannels...much less drama and faster.
 
Mark B: I guess cable systems are different even when it comes to the same channel; your system is more further advanced than ours.
 
I don't usually have anywhere to turn to when the Weather Channel is running the reality programming. the NBC WeatherPlus feed in Atlanta sucks. Only five major cities and none of them is within 30 minutes of me. Big thumbs down to both.
 
You guys desperately need something like The Weather Network from Canada. They air continually up-to-date forecasts 24/7, no matter what. No reality shows. And they even have a couple different regional feeds. If there is nothing else useful on cable, it is TWN.

On the flip side, at least your local stations interrupt programming to air severe weather alerts. Almost unheard of in Weather Network country.
 
M.J. said:
at least your local stations interrupt programming to air severe weather alerts. Almost unheard of in Weather Network country.
Click to expand...

Though it's funny that The Weather Network's parent, Pelmorex, has applied to the CRTC to launch an alert service similar to the EAS.
 
"Having grown up and lived in Texas and now living in Ohio, I always keep a weather radio and/or scanner with the WX freqs programmed into it. Between the WX radio, local radio (when they're actually live and local), local TV outlets and NWS websites online, I suppose I don't really need TWC to tell me there's a tornado coming.

Short answer: get a WX radio. :)"

FYI, a scanner with WX presets (or if it doesn't have these you can tune them easily by searching the spectrum 162.400-162.600 MHz) or even a portable radio with a VHF TV tuner (most of these can also tune weather and to some degree the railroad/VHF police/Ham radio spectra) are MUST-HAVES if you live in the Pacific Northwestern USA (and Canada, for that matter) when the weather turns nasty and the winter night skies look like the fourth-of-July in November!!

*VERY* useful for when we make our semiannual pilgrammages to the Coast.

Also, my scanner radio is programmed with the frequencies of PGE and Clark County PUD (for Washington) in case the power goes out, as it has done frequently as of late, it seems...........

"Yep---I used to be a real Weather Channel freak, but all the evening "reality programming" cured me of that. Now I get my forcasts from NBC Weather Plus or one of the other local's digital sidechannels...much less drama and faster."

Same here, especially now since TWC seems to have Digiciphered its satellite transponders. (An unnecessary evil!!) So now the only way I can get anything resembling it is via Weather Plus. At least the only non-weather forecast programming I have ever seen on WP is the occasional commercials... ;o)
 
M.J. said:
You guys desperately need something like The Weather Network from Canada. They air continually up-to-date forecasts 24/7, no matter what.
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Until about 2001 or so, that's exactly what the Weather Channel did, with an occasional holiday special (Hurricanes '95 Season on Edge comes to mind). Then in 2001 they debut a show called Atmospheres...enough said. After that came Storm Stories, and its been downhill since.
 
I agree that TWC is going down the MTV road.
Maybe they'll produce a real world storm chasers show? :)
I haven't watched in months, maybe they already do!
 
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