Reporting On Bad Weather

At the moment I’m experiencing ‘blizzard conditions’ outside.

Apparently this is due to a winter storm system that has hit the area. This has made it cold, windy and snowfall accumulations likely.  Thanks to the Weather Channel I learned these facts.

Like most people holed up in their homes when bad weather hits I want to get weather information. The best place to get that is of course is at The Weather Channel.

During one of these big ‘weather events’ watching the news is pretty much the only thing you can do. And when it’s weather-related news that is the talk of the area, The Weather Channel is the go to place. The station must thrive on big stories like this.

Not to say the folks at The Weather Channel love hearing that a big ‘Event’ storm is rolling in and having to report on these awful conditions and situations that are happening, but I can’t help but think there must be some sort of excitement for them there when this happens. They obviously know that millions of people are going to be tuning in.

A station called ‘The Weather Channel’ you would expect to give you the best, top-quality weather reporting ever. They must have better insight, news and reports than your local news channel on what’s going on right?

During these storm days The Weather Channel always seems to be on in the background. After watching it for most of the day, my mind starts to get numb from hearing the same recycled reports and I start to notice other things. I begin to take note of other things. Like these on-site reports.

I do enjoy watching these weather folks standing outside giving their live-on-the-scene reports. It never fails to amuse me. They’re standing in knee-high water. They have the rain, wind, snow pounding down on them, and for what? They’ll keep urging people to stay inside, so I immediately start thinking “why don’t you take your own advice???”

I often take notice of what these reporters are wearing outside to brave the elements. They’re usually standing outside in stormy weather dressed in their jackets and hats that sport their news programs logo. I wonder if they ever get calls from the audience asking where they might be able to purchase this apparel?

They’ll always be one reporter during a snowstorm who comes up with the idea of bringing a ruler outside and doing a live measurement of the snowfall total for us. I always think that’s such a low-tech way to report nowadays it’s almost refreshing. It’s like something I’d expect to see out on some kind of farm channel or something. What a quaint little segment that always is.

During Hurricane Sandy tons of reporters were out in the area doing live reports. I never understood why they can’t just set up a camera, lock it down real good and just cut to it occasionally from the studio.

Ok, so the lens might get wet, but can’t someone design a windshield wiper-type of gadget to clean it remotely? I know they want to break up the monotony of hanging out at the anchor desk and making us look at satellite maps all day and it does provide some excitement and drama, but really do they have to stand out there getting pelted by debris?

Plus, most of the time when they cut to these on-site reports ninety percent of the time there are technical difficulties with them. So the feed gets cut, the audio drops, you can’t make out what the guy in the in the raincoat and Weather Channel cap is saying. So they just cut back to the anchors telling us there must be some problems and they’ll move on.

Not be undone, the anchors back in the studio want to look like they’ve been working just as hard. So ties are loosened, sleeves rolled up. It gives the impression these guys haven’t taken a break since all this started either. They might look a little disheveled, but they’re at their post giving us the latest updates.

By the way, who is this Crystal Egger chick??? Why haven’t I heard of her before? I never really had a Favorites Anchor Women list, but I think she could be a possible candidate here! I wouldn’t mind if they stayed at the anchor desk if she was around! Maybe I should watch The Weather Channel a little more often.

I’m not sure when it started that anchors were no longer chained to a desk, sitting on their butts with a piece of paper in their hands, but now they can actually stand to report the news. Maybe CNN started this trend.

This innovation works perfectly for anchors like Crystal. Not because it makes her reporting better, but just because there’s not a big desk blocking our view from admiring her. This certainly keeps me tuned in longer. This wouldn’t have helped Walter Cronkite.

The Weather Channel should have the best weather graphics of any news station out there. And they usually don’t disappoint. They always use these big scary fonts, usually colored in blood-red, opening each segment. Seeing the ominious words ‘Winter Storm’ zoom at you with scary-type of music, you’re immediately on the edge of your seat.

Speaking of graphics I don’t know how many more graphics they can cram onto one TV screen! There’s not one inch of it that is not used up by something. Mini weather maps, the time, the reporters name, the location, temperature and of course the ever-present ‘Tracking The Storm’ in the upper corner. You can barely see the the middle of the screen and pay attention to the reporter.

No wonder people need huge, gigantic TV’s nowadays.

Watching all this weather stuff really makes me miss one of my favorite weathermen – Lloyd Lindsay Young. He did the local weather in my area for years and he was always such a hoot to watch. I never saw anyone do a weather report and look to be having such fun doing it!

It must of been almost twenty years since he left the local station, but odds are if I asked someone who was around back if they remember the weatherman who used to give a loud ‘Hello’ to someone before his forecast – they’ll remember him.

Looking back at clips of him, his wild approach to his weather map is something we’d never see happen on the Weather Channel today! Reporters want to present themselves much more seriously than that. I wonder if he and Crystal Eggers would make a good team….