The Science of Conspiracy Theories

Weather Conspiracy

Weather Conspiracy

This is going to sound more like a rant. The reason I'm writing it is because the weather prediction business has gotten out of hand in recent times. This applies to the United States. I'm not sure about England or the European countries.
The local TV stations in the US have gone over to Tabloid news and weather. They seem to have abandoned journalistic standards and have takn to reporting only news that is controversial or titilating. And, the weather has taken front seat to all other news. My son says that this is because they are not allowed to have commercial references in the news but are in the weather. The bottom line is that they have begun to advertise the weather as if it were apocalyptic. This is particularly true now that Winter has set in.

Every, and I do mean every, news broadcast begins with 'Breaking News'. It doesn't matter if the particular news story has been harped on for two or there days, it's still breaking news. This is ridiculous. Breaking news should be limited to a major event like a terrorist attack not the weather. They act as if no one has ever seen snow or a lighting storm. I don't know what planet they're from but it snows over here in the Winter and thunder storms are common in the Spring and Summer. They act as if these events are record breaking occurrences. Records are made to be broken. Some days it's warmer and some days it's cooler. The fact is that the weather service's method of measuring the temperature is flawed. They take it near a major airport, which is warmer than anywhere else because of the black tarmac, which absorbs heat and radiates it. If they're using this method to predict global warming, they're nuts.

Living close to Lake Erie means that we see a lot of lake effect. A northern wind comes across the lake and picks up moisture and depositis it in the higher elevations on shore. That's how lake effect works and it's a common event near Cleveland. Lake effect can deposit prodigious amounts of snow, but this is a fact of life near the lake during the Winter. You would think that no one has ever heard of it the way they characterize the weather when this happens. They make is sound as if it's the end of the world. They designate it as an 'Alert Day', portraying it as if it were some major weather disaster.

And, God help us if there is a possibility of a tornado. They're rare around here but they do happen. When there is a tornado warning or watch the weather takes over and completely dominates TV. They keep warning people to take cover even though they're not certain that a tornado has touched down. They rely on Doppler radar to see circulation in a return image from a storm. The fact is that this heightened activity acts as a 'Cry Wolf' syndrome in which most people begin to ignore it because a tornado is so localized most people never see one. Besides, most communities have siren warnings for a tornado. I think that's more effective than some TV weather person harping about seeing rotation is a radar image.

What happened to honest and professional journalism? I think it went the way of the money grabbing media companies that have taken over the local stations and have turned them into tabloid TV to pander scandal and sexual indendos type stories in order to gain more advertising money. It's a shame and it's an affront to anyone who desires real news.

Thanks for reading.