Why does The Weather Channel suck?

[Scarpozzi]

It's almost as useful as MTV is when you want to watch music videos...


I have DirecTV and know that there are other versions of TWC that have the local forecast in a constant loop like they used to... I really miss that.

UPDATE: DirecTV must have read my post because they dropped WC and replaced it with WeatherNation a few months ago. It's much better. They actually show the weather and cover the weather looped in a timely fashion. It still has the local weather app.

 

[Pardus]

TWC was recently revamped. Now it looks more like a rag magazine with wild doom and gloom headlines to get you to click on them. They should go back to reporting the weather and not breaking news.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I never turn to TWC, I can get all the weather online, or on my phone.

 

[nanette1985]

They have managed to name this stupid Thanksgiving storm Boreas.

But nobody else pays attention to winter storm names.

TWC is no great loss.

 

[Scarpozzi]

They have managed to name this stupid Thanksgiving storm Boreas.

But nobody else pays attention to winter storm names.

TWC is no great loss.

NBC bought them and they are terrible unless the storm chasers are live in hurricane season. I just hate that the channel has nothing to offer the other 360 days of the year.

 

[DrPizza]

Noaa.gov plus advertising plus sensationalism plus more sensationalism plus, did I say sensationalism yet = weather channel

 

[OutHouse]

TWC just sucks anymore. and i cant stand jim cantori, the guy is a prick in person.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Noaa.gov plus advertising plus sensationalism plus more sensationalism plus, did I say sensationalism yet = weather channel

Yeah their website is ridiculously over the top "OMG you won't believe what did this!" "Is this the end of the world?!?" "People survived this?" and most of them have nothing to do with weather.

 

[who?]

Like all networks they have to find a way to get people to watch through the commercials.

 

[dawp]

and they now have slideshows that have nothing to do with weather, such as:

http://www.weather.com/travel/worlds-most-terrifying-bridges-20130305

they really need to go back to covering the weather and nothing else.

 

[Jeff7]

Yeah their website is ridiculously over the top "OMG you won't believe what did this!" "Is this the end of the world?!?" "People survived this?" and most of them have nothing to do with weather.

This.


They should just change all of their links to say "Oh god would you please click on this so we can get more sweet, sweet advertising revenue." And you need to load many pages to get the bits of content you actually want because it generates more page loads, which gets us more revenue while wasting your time, because screw you.


My reason for hating on TWC is that they bought Weather Underground - and Weather Underground for letting it happen.

 

[PottedMeat]

My reason for hating on TWC is that they bought Weather Underground - and Weather Underground for letting it happen.

i can't tell if WU has changed very much since (adblock and all). my local page still has the forecast and the nice block of local weather stations.

 

[lxskllr]

I've had desktop weather forever. I used to go occasionally for hourly forecasts, but I've seen no reason to the last few years.

Coordinates
Altitude: 374.02 ft
Latitude: 39.5526°
Longitude: -76.2982°

Downloads
Weather data:
Last: 2013-11-27 08:40:22
Next: 2013-11-27 09:00:22
Current failed attempts: 0

Astronomical data:
Last: 2013-11-27 00:00:01
Next: 2013-11-28 00:00:00
Current failed attempts: 0

Times Used for Calculations
Temperatures, wind, atmosphere and cloud data calculated
for: 2013-11-27 08:55:00

Precipitation and the weather symbol have been calculated
using the following time interval:
Start: 2013-11-27 07:00:00
End: 2013-11-27 10:00:00

Astronomical Data
Sunrise: 2013-11-27 07:02:43
Sunset: 2013-11-27 16:42:51

Moon phase: Waning crescent
Moonrise: 2013-11-27 00:58:47
Moonset: 2013-11-27 13:22:17

Temperatures
Temperature: 38.5 °F
Dew point: 37.4 °F
Apparent temperature: 31.0 °F

Wind
Speed: 11.9 mph (4 on the Beaufort scale)
Direction: NW (321.3°)

Precipitations
Precipitations amount: 0.09 in

Atmosphere
Barometric pressure: 14.5 psi
Relative humidity: 96.0 %

Clouds
Fog: 0.0 %
Low clouds: 97.0 %
Middle clouds: 99.7 %
High clouds: 100.0 %
Cloudiness: 100.0 %

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

**Waits for rebuttal of why TWC does not suck with supporting evidence provided in the form of a picture of smoking hot anchor lady**

:sneaky:

 

[DrPizza]

NOAA: I'm going to get 4" of snow. The areas that typically get a lot more snow - ski resorts about 25 miles from here - will get a foot or so of snow.

Weather Channel: You're all going to die! 16 inches of snow! You're doomed! Stay tuned in! Watch our commercials! Visit our Website! See more advertising! (oh, and if you read this fine print section carefully, it's the NOAA forecast)

 

[NetWareHead]

**Waits for rebuttal of why TWC does not suck with supporting evidence provided in the form of a picture of smoking hot anchor lady**

:sneaky:

I was going to post about this.

Seriously, Stefanie Abrams, Maria Larosa, Jen Carfagno, Alexandra Wilson :wub:

Seriously, the weather gets kinda boring and what better way to make it more interesting with good looking women. The Spanish broadcasting stations have this figured out; have you seen some of their "meteorologists?" Forget about pressure and temperatures, the only relevant numbers on the Spanish weather segments are 34-28-44 lol :biggrin:


I work in a NOC where one of the constant satellite feeds we have on our video wall is the weather channel. Its all day weather channel here...

 

[Vdubchaos]

Outside of what already has been stated. Weather channel does a very poor job at actually getting the weather right.

I stopped looking at their forecast as it always seemed off or wrong.

Actually, opposite of what they say is a good indicator.

 

[mmntech]

Weather Channel: You're all going to die! 16 inches of snow! You're doomed! Stay tuned in! Watch our commercials! Visit our Website! See more advertising! (oh, and if you read this fine print section carefully, it's the NOAA forecast)

I work fairly closely with TWC's Canadian counterpart. Yep, it's true they pump up the storms to sell advertising. Winter storms especially attract more eyeballs so the ad space commands a higher rate. However, it's sold on a per season basis and the businesses expect a certain amount of views for that block. So minor storms do get pumped up if nothing big has happened in awhile. In TWC's case, there really haven't been any hurricanes this autumn so they still have a big quota to fill.

As for just stealing NOAA's forecasts. I know TWN here in Canada does most of their own forecasting. Raw data comes in from Environment Canada's and NOAA's super computers and they interpret it. I would assume TWC is the same. Though maybe their meteorologists aren't as good. Predicting the weather isn't an exact science due to the sheer number of variables. From what I've been told, accuracy of a forecast goes down roughly 15% a day. So they can say with 100% certainty of what it's doing today and 85% certainty of what it will do tomorrow. As for next Wednesday, that's really just the best educated guess based on the computer models. How they do it is compare several different computer models and see where they best fit together. Like assembling a puzzle, except with a lot more science involved.

 

[NoTine42]

My DirecTv HD DVR used to insert basic local on the 8 slides, but it hasn't done that for the past few months.

 

[DrPizza]

From what I've been told, accuracy of a forecast goes down roughly 15% a day. So they can say with 100% certainty of what it's doing today

Well, yesterday they said I was getting 8" of snow today. It's not snowing and hasn't snowed. Today, they say 1" of snow by 2pm; see previous sentence.

 

[dmcowen674]

**Waits for rebuttal of why TWC does not suck with supporting evidence provided in the form of a picture of smoking hot anchor lady**

:sneaky:

Vivian Brown is the best they've got

 

[AmdEmAll]

They had some tow truck show on during the super typhoon that destroyed the Philippines.. I commented about that a few times on their facebook page and they kept deleting it.

 

[OCGuy]

Its the fkcuing Weather Channel. They don't exactly use false advertising.

 

[Jeff7]

i can't tell if WU has changed very much since (adblock and all). my local page still has the forecast and the nice block of local weather stations.

It may well have already been in the works, but some time after the acquisition, they changed their "wundermap" in what I can only assume was an attempt to eliminate at least 30% of the functionality and flexibility.
And maybe I'm just tuning into it more now, but I am seeing more of those "You'll never believe this terrifying story!" or "Winter Storm Horace holding adorable kittens hostage" headlines.

 

[ViRGE]

The Weather Channel has been useless for some time now. Since websites all but killed the need for constant on-air weather reporting, all that's left are increasingly outlandish ideas to stay relevant.

Which is a shame, because in the 90s they were awesome. Especially John Hope and the rest of the hurricane crew.