[Speed Gibson,
Monday May 9, 2005 at 1:28am]
Desperate Weatherweenies
I watch Desperate Housewives. I'm a man and I like it. So shut up out there! (Lynette is my favorite character.)
But two things are certain in prime time. One, if it rains anywhere within 250 miles, a beeping crawl, larger every season appears. Two, that crawl immediately disappears when they go to commercial.
So I had to watch much of D.H. in split screen, with about equal space given to ABC and the Jackson County radar.
And what showed up? Exactly what I thought would happen, looking at the sky at 5pm. A modest thunderstorm.
Once again, they cried wolf. Once again, I fear the casualties when the next truly dangerous storm comes and the weatherweenies have no words left to distinguish it from their past exagerations.
But two things are certain in prime time. One, if it rains anywhere within 250 miles, a beeping crawl, larger every season appears. Two, that crawl immediately disappears when they go to commercial.
So I had to watch much of D.H. in split screen, with about equal space given to ABC and the Jackson County radar.
And what showed up? Exactly what I thought would happen, looking at the sky at 5pm. A modest thunderstorm.
Once again, they cried wolf. Once again, I fear the casualties when the next truly dangerous storm comes and the weatherweenies have no words left to distinguish it from their past exagerations.
What's worse, one local station is touting that their radar can pinpoint severe weather down to the city block. "Well Martha, Channel 99 says that tornado is at 50th Street and Lyndale, so we've got time before it gets to us here at 46th and Nicollet."
Government has played a role in the "Chicken Little Training Program" too: The civil defense sirens are now sounded for severe thunderstorms, not just for confirmed tornadoes. One time last summer they sounded for high winds!
I remember as kid that when WCCO Radio sounded their Tornado Warning sound (the three long buzzes: ERRRRRR---ERRRRRR---ERRRRRR) that it was genuinely serious. Heck, just remembering that sound gives me the willies!