Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

Sorry Micheal,

Yes it was LOL :0)

TWC is aaaaaight...getting worse and better

They provide things we don't need, but want(after brainwashing). Did TWC hire psychologists?

Mostly Storm Stories, a deplete international weather segment, and dismal local coverage is to be expected as they move away from providing what is needed and producing what is addictive, which is hype and drama(e.g. pre-storm coverage)

I show all my friends how to use WU (a feat in itself as we are all in college and I am the only one I know who has an affinity for the weather) and interact with the maps and radar in the event that I may be on the road or out of touch with the net

As for the 3 arrests; bad professional ethics in this case is overshadowed and replaced by the next story..so sad but true

OK, here's my two cents on TWC. I'll admit to watching "Storm Stories", and my wife likes it too IF they show something new and not a tired old rerun. I would have to say that there is far less serious weather and more stuff for ratings now than in the earlier years. And I was VERY disappointed when they got rid of Paul Kocin! I never really got into weather.com. and have gotten my weather off of WU for a long time, then started reading the blogs, then started blogging, now have to control blog addiction LOL

There is no excuse for trespassing on someone's property to get a story, and the reporters should face the consequences.

On the "shut down the NWS" comment, I believe that was Accuweather, not TWC. TWC runs off NOAA data, it would hardly be to their advantage to shut them down.

NOAA's March rap up is out~ highlights

Last month was the driest March on record for five eastern states—New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida.

Moderate-to-extreme drought (as defined by a widely-used measure of drought—the Palmer Drought Index) affected about 26 percent of the contiguous U.S.

Several cities in northern California had a record number of days with rain for March, including 25 days for San Francisco and 23 days for Redding.

The Hawaiian Islands were much wetter than normal, with a record rainfall total on Mt. Waialeale (Kauai) of 93.7 inches. This was nearly 60 inches above normal and broke the April 1971 record of 90.07 inches.

The average temperature for the contiguous United States for March (based on preliminary data) was warmer than average at 44.0 degrees F (6.7degrees C). This was 1.5 degrees F (0.8 degrees C) above the 1895-2005 mean, making it warmer than two-thirds of the March temperatures on record.

The average global temperature anomaly for combined land and ocean surfaces during March 2006 (based on preliminary data) was 1.01 degrees F (0.56 degrees C) above the 20th century mean. This was the 7th warmest March since 1880 (the beginning of reliable instrumental records)

It wasn't a matter of shutting down NWS only their part in weather info disseminating to the public & one tried as hard as the other on that account, but accuweather took it one step further in their comments that they also wanted NWS to provide them with nifty maps & the graphics package to dissiminate the info in. They lost out to the public, but NWS has given them the right to forecast whatever they want as long as they also put out the NWS track or forecast during severe weather.

Personally, I believe that they shouldn't be allowed to require Accuweather to do that. AccuWX is a private company, asinine as they are, and should have the freedom to do what they like, as long as it's made clear that it is, in fact, unofficial.

Ya it is accuweather that wanted to be independent from the NWS,TWC has always been afiliated with the the weather experts at the NWS,if you get a a high membership pass off of weather.com(which cost some money)you get even more infor and radar options then this site the problem is you have to pay for it on the TWC.I use TWC,NWS,and WU to get the most complete coverage on everything,I think all companys and their significant competitors will all have their advantages and disadvantages,if not there would only be one competitor or maybe 1.I take advantage of this by using all 3 sources as all 3(NWS,WU,TWC,)have their advantages and disadvantages.

Well,I believe that when the NWS was started their was some sort of government law,that made private companys have to use NWS products and be affiliated at least somewhatt to make sure they are providing others with ligitimate info,because severe can be a life or death situation which most people dont realize untill huge tornado outbreaks occur.

Or like situations like all the hurricanes or unless they get hit themselves,most peoplw dont really take the weather as that sirious of a matter,but at times weather can be extremely violent and as dangerous as weopons of war.

If not the NWS wouldnt be a government division,that is why they require other companys to use their products,and accuweather got to pushy.

Jedkins~ Are you comparing the high membership pass off of weather.com to the info from the $5 membership at WU or what you get as a nonmember of WU?

Even though Accuweather is a private entity it wouldn't be in existance without all the data that NWS gives them (none of them would), they don't own satilites & whatnot. The public pays taxes to gather the info as well as for the NWS to forcast. Their mission statement is all about protecting public & property while allowing some forecasting money to be made in this country by privite industry. To let a company owned by the major tourist company, have accsess to data paid for by americans & forecast only their own forecast during severe events conflicts with the whole 1st 1/2 of that mission statement. NWS needs as many disseminating routes to reach all americans in the path of bad weather, this is their return for providing all the info that accuweather uses to exist.

Poll: do you think Hurricane Rita was cat 3 or cat 4 at land fall

Poll: dos ca need more rain

Poll: do you like jim Cantore from twc

Poll: is storm2k a good blog to post on?

Poll: when do you think we see are frist storm of 2006



her are some of my polls come to my blog to find more of them

Shear continuing to break, area of near-zero shear in the SW carib - only weeks left, methinks.

Link

Accuweather did what many companies do, they made a campaign contribution to their senator, Senator Santorum PA. In exchange he introduced favorable legislation into the subcommittee.

Pretty typical behavior on behalf of companies and politicians.

More importantly, the subcommittee never brought up the legislation for discussion. None of the other senators of either party wanted anything to do with it.

Santorum was unable to find another senator of either party to co-sponsor the legislation. In other words, it ain’t goin' nowhere.

The only result of this folly, IMO, was that it made both Accuweather and Santorum look really, really bad.

I did some research on all this last summer. As part of that, I contacted Santorum’s office. They sent me information stating his viewpoint. It arrived the day after Katrina hit.

If there was ever any possibility of that legislation being taken serously, and the evidence suggests there wasn’t, I'd say not a chance after Katrina.

I don't see anything wrong with watching the weather channel, as long as you realize and accept its limitations. I like the "weather in a nutshell" format they use, which, as someone mentioned (forget who now), is great if you want to get a general idea of weather across the country. I do agree, however, that they have become more sensationalistic in their broadcasting in the last couple of years.

Nevertheless, they still have some good points. I actually like their website because they attempt to give some basic information on a huge range of locations around the US and the rest of the world. Moreover, they pull together quite a lot of information in one location, including some fairly sophisticated interational material. I wouldn't rely on their information alone for any serious weather information, but as a survey tool or for cursory searching they are pretty comprehensive. (For example, I usually check 3/4 other websites for weather info during hurricane season, along with local broadcasts.)

I also think they have to keep the information relatively comprehensible to the broadest base of viewers and web users. From their perspective it would be economic suicide to provide huge amounts of essentially esoteric information for a relatively small audience instead. It's not as if there aren't other websites like WU for the more weather-astute or for the curious, easy to find websites that serve a different purpose, and to a certain extent a different audience from TWC.

On the news article about the arrests, I think those young reporters got themselves into trouble. They needed to learn a lesson that perhaps they didn't understand by listening to or observing others; you have to show some respect for others, even if you are getting the news out. Perhaps they will be a bit more empathetic and a little less brash in future.

With DAVIDKRZW's latest post spelling on the internet has hit a new low.

Colby it is only a matter of time. Just take a look at Monica! What a storm! She is in almost 0 shear!

Monica is in the southern hemisphere ;)

Sorry Colby I should have reworded my post. I was saying it is only a matter of time in response to your last post. Then I made a comment about Monica I should have seperated them sorry.

Reference storm coverage by the media...I, for one, get soooooo tired of seeing reporters (most of whom know almost nothing about weather) standing in flood waters, getting blasted by wind, hit by waves, etc. during hurricanes...and then they criticize the public for not evacuating or otherwise being out "in harms way" during the duration. Such silly stuff we end up with--all in the name of news. How many times does the Weather Channel have to show these so-called Storm Stories??

well, I'm going to go out on a limb, and possibly become (more)unpopular. It doesn't seam to me like tresspassing is the most serious of offenses. While I certainly wouldn't like someone tresspassing on my property. Just slap a fine big enough to be a deterrant have the procedes go to the "victim" and be done with it. On the scale of crimes, it is one of the most minor certainly below fraud, drugs, shop lifting, and perhaps even the crime of bad taste ;).
Yeah, you shouldn't tresspass on other's property, but I don't know anyone who didn't commit this crime growing up in some form. Hell, I used to have kids cutting through my lawn all the time. I didn't like it, but I didn't get bent out of shape.

ditto for me too gcain...Where has the right to privacy gone? Previous posts have summed up my thoughts so I won't add any more.

Monica is looking impressive. Looks like there is going to be a double landfall. We'll see.

This is off subject. I'm using Firefox as a browser. It allows me to open up multiple tabs in one window instead of multiple windows like IE. It's easier to blog and look up sat pics without too much of trouble.

I don't really mind people passing through as long as there is no vandalism, but at this point I don't like the idea of someone staying for a while. May the circumstances would be different if death was not involved.

"maybe the circumstances"

As just a note for Haydn, the comment about internet explorer not doing tabs is not entirely true. Just recently Microsoft released an Internet Explorer 7 Beta thingy that does give you tabs.

As for the weather channel, I think that NWS > WU > TWC

Storm stories on TWC was interesting for a while, but it also is anoying when you are actually trying to find current conditions. But I always go to wunderground for tropical storm updates, as Louisiana is always at risk.

I used to be a TWC junkie, but hardly ever watch it anymore. There's just too much superior weather information on line now. However, I do have to throw in a favorite Cantore moment. I remember seeing him in the studio one night several years ago explaining the south-central satellite images and getting all excited about this big cloud over north Texas, because it wasn't really a cloud: it was a huge formation of bats flying someplace. It was obvious that right before he went on, he must have been sitting there talking with the people in the studio going "This is so cool!".

We have several excellent local meteorologists here in the Tampa Bay area. I watch them as much as I watch TWC during hurricane season.