Friday, February 21, 2014

The Charlotte Observer's Weather Hype


Got to love how they hype weather radar return at the Charlotte The Observer: 


Radar Return From The Charlotte Observer
Within the last hour a few heavy showers and sporadic thunder and lightening moved through the area. The Charlotte Observer, above shows "scary red and yellow" while the Nation Weather Service below shows yellow and plenty of green. The real truth is this was a non-event but with the alarms and hype you would expect that the area was covered with multiple tornados.
 
Radar Return From The National Weather Service
Of course it depends on how you set the colors on the computer. The weather biz is big money where hype and armageddon drive page views. But this is just wrong.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This really ticks me off. I medicated the dog (the vet gives her an RX)based on the hype because she shakes, cowers and cries during heavy storms. Now she is all flopped out for nothing.

Anonymous said...

I hear you Cedar, this is wrong if the Observer is turning up the gain on the radar just to make the rain look more imposing, that is just sick.

I understand weather forecasting is big money, but even smart weather guys like Brad Panovich are guilty of weather hype.