There’s been a lot of discussion on social networks and blogs today and yesterday about TV weather coverage. Lost and American Idol finales were last night, just as a huge line of thunderstorms were rolling in. The storms were pretty serious business. The system killed three people in Kirksville and caused damage across the Midwest. Some were defending the local coverage, which IMO can be annoying in presentation regardless of the severity of the situation.
I’m a huge Lost fan. I’m also a BIG weather geek who’s glued to the radar when the storms hit. Hell, I watch the Weather Channel all the time just because it’s the only truly up-to-the-minute channel on TV.
I agree that life-threatening situations vs. TV time is not really a debate. But here’s my beef:
1) It’s usually not life-threatening. They get over-hyped and break in for almost anything. Pea-sized hail doesn’t pass the test.
2) I’m sick of being talked down to like a three year old. “Go to your shelter right now! Don’t come out until we tell you to!” That’s one reason why transplants to the Ozarks get so scared about tornadoes. We make too big a deal out of this stuff sometimes. If you’re not from here and you happened to be in Springfield during a night of severe weather while watching local TV, you’d think a tsunami carrying swine flu pathogens was about to sweep through.
3) People say you can just watch the TV show online, because everyone has the Web. Correct. It’s why I have the local radar bookmarked. I’ve lived here long enough to be able to look at the radar and make a reasonably well-informed judgment about whether I should duck into a closet. I know not everyone can or wants to do this, but it’s just as viable as watching the show on the Web. I live in central Springfield and really didn’t even consider getting in my shelter. There was really no reason to.
4) A small nit-pick: even the crawls can be annoying because it turns my gorgeous 16:9 HD picture into 4:3 SD. Hey, if you’re going to make such a big deal about going to digital transmission, invest in some graphics upgrades.
Finally — MAJOR KUDOS to the KSPR team. They did everything that was appropriate. If life-threatening weather had actually been in the Springfield area during Lost, then I would have been just fine with missing the show for the weather. But as it was, the storms were pretty average until about 10:15 and cutting in for just a few minutes during COMMERCIALS and streaming the rest online was totally appropriate. On top of that, Kevin Lighty struck the proper tone of concern without being alarmist. All of that (combined with superior radar tech) has now turned me into a loyal KSPR viewer for severe weather.
I agree with you completely about KSPR. They really handled it the way I think was best for the situations.
Is it just me or does their radar tech look like NASA compared to KY3’s Atari getup?
Springfield does get overly excited on their broadcast. When I first moved to Tulsa I couldn’t believe that they didn’t do the same here considering the storms are stronger. But I am thankful they don’t and wait for the commercials and don’t use it as an opportunity to show their dramatic performance skills!
If they can do it in Oklahoma, which sees far more weather events than the Ozarks, then we can do it here. There’s no reason to hit the damn panic button every time the sky turns gray.