Weather Channel, you are silly (Read 850 times)

But I have to admit my online weather usually is from TWC.  They seem to understand that my little town in the foothills actually has significantly different weather than the big city 20 miles away, which most services dont. Which means they are wrong only 65% of the time vs. 85%

Did you try weatherunderground?

I don't know if it's better than TWC in forecast but it's got a lot more information more friendly accessible for users, especially for local weather. Disclaimer: I didn't start paying close attention to weather until I started running.

The NWS has localized weather pages too that display regional/local forecast map (short & long term) on top, followed by other observational/forecast/hydrology maps that include radar, satellite(different bands), weather map, then also the tabulated ground observation at stations in the area. Few people know this service, I guess. (weather maps are great for following a system. NWS has routinely generated animated forecast maps for upto a week).

Also, the NWS does not have a local office in every city/town. In that case it's quite possible to miss local deviation from the synoptic weather forecast or even obs.

EDIT: TWC is so commercialized. It's more like a weather news channel than a weather channel now.

I tend to use weatherunderground.com because they have many smaller stations online. Some of those stations (usually maintained by individuals) happen to be at trailheads or very close. (I've not been able to find them on other websites.)  A couple even have webcams so you can see the snow depth. One even posts an "alert" when it's too warm to use the ski trails, and they're closed. (that's a new one this fall for the new ski trails that just went in - first no snow, then some snow, then too warm)

With the wind variations we get coming from two glacial valleys, it's really helpful to see the current wind patterns to verify which trail to use that day. You can zoom out on the map to see the temperature / wind patterns or zoom in for specifics. Those wind variations can occur in less than 1-2 mile distance - calm and 0F at the airport, 40mph wind, +40F at my house. Double click for site history.

What's the deal with the weather channel and weather.com naming winter storms like hurricanes.  Apparently we're up to some damn thing called "Freyr".

 

Why on earth do we need to do this????

Has the feel of someone trying to force a trend---and that always feels vaguely like trying to pass a bowling bowl (which I've never done, but have come close after eating a 16oz block of cheddar cheese during The Blizzard Of 78---a visit to the john that will live in infamy and shall always remain nameless).

Speaking of that blizzard, it's name was perfect, no? "Of '78"---has a ring to it. 1978 had Bucky Dent zinging the Sox in the 1 game playoff, the Camp David accords were signed, and there was forced bussing in Boston schools. This naming of snowstorms seems to be about as popular as the latter was.

It's a spinoff of the shameless, soulless naming of horrible events on the news channels, which gives the perception that a mass murder or disaster on which they are reporting is a shiny packaged show.

And about the word "bussing"--spell check marks it as a misspelling. Checked it on Google, it gave me the "did you mean busing?". Now, maybe I'm just getting to be an ol' fart, but when I see "busing", I read it like the word "abusing" without the "a". Or like "using." I was taught in school back in 1928 that  a double "s" was needed to keep the the short u sound. Bussing.

I've noticed a lot of changes in spelling rules as I get older that I just don't know when they arrived. Sorry about the mini-hijack, Mr. Lopez.

No no.

GandOlf.

????

I prefer NOAA. They have an hourly weather graph that helps when I'm making decisions on a run now or later sort of thing. They should pay me for as much as I talk about their site.

 

Yes, weather channel is silly. Use NOAA instead

I am a NOAA fan also, and I do exactly as you do, checking the hourly graph to see if the rain is going to let up if I wait or if I may as well go out and get soaked b/c nothing is changing.  Pretty straightforward, nothing too cute or catchy about it.

www.noaa.gov ,that is what I have used all along.  Well, I also used www.accuweather.com in the past, but nowadays they have screwed up the radars, and fluffed that site up so much that it seems a copy of the TWC site now.  So I am back to my faithful site:  NOAA.  (One of the Few Government funded agencies that actually does a good job!)

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