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Don't Mock the Weatherguy...


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Except his defense is of the on the air mets. For the most part they have least to do with developing a forecast.

TV mets are the ones apparently "hyping" everything according everyone. That's why his defense is of them. And most people watch television for their weather so everyone blames the TV guys. And you're dead wrong. TV mets DO make their own forecasts. I always made my own when I was on TV. So I kind of take offense to that. I would never do TV weather if I couldn't develop my own forecast.

What duties do most US tv mets perform? Do they create personal forecasts for their market or do they use info from the NWS?

Yes most that I know make their own forecasts. I made my own and would only look at the NWS as a tool. But of course when warnings are issued and hurricane tracks are put out, TV mets can't make their own forecast there. They have to use the exact track put out. But everything else TV mets do themselves, unless they are lazy or have no weather background.

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Except his defense is of the on the air mets. For the most part they have least to do with developing a forecast.

What forecast are you talking about? If you are referring to the National Hurricane Center's official track, then correct, we don't have a part of making that forecast. As for your LOCAL forecast, they DO make their own forecast. Sure, there are weather producers for the bigger markets, but even that is going by the wayside...

What duties do most US tv mets perform? Do they create personal forecasts for their market or do they use info from the NWS?

I create my own forecast every morning! As do all the other TV meteorologists in this market. All my friends make their OWN forecasts. Most do. Sure, there are some out there that are too lazy to create their own forecast and rip-and-read from the NWS but that's a SMALL minority.

Do I look at what our NWS offices are thinking? Of course. Is it the first place I go? Heck no! I go through all the models, look for the big synoptic pattern for the next 7 days and go from there. I get a rough idea of what my temperatures are going to be before I look at MOS guidance. THEN I look at what the NWS is thinking for my area to see if it lines up, to see if they caught something I may have missed in my sleep deprived state at 3AM. Most of the time I see what they see, other times they see a RH map that would indicate a little bit more cloud cover than I was originally thinking. Finally, I put together my forecast and all the graphics.

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I think an important distinction needs to be made. Just because someone states that Irene didn't pack the overall punch that was expected (overall is the key word, of course in some areas this was every bit as advertised), that doesn't mean they are poo-pooing this as a non event. I don't think anyone other than some weenies would say this was NOT a major event. It most definitely was. Having said that, it's my view that it was forecast to be even more major than it actually was, again in the overall sense, not in every region.

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Wow looks like I touched a nerve. Sure TV Mets sometimes stray from the NWS official forecast. Usually when it doesn't matter. A few more clouds tomorrow, a degree or two lower tonight. Thats not what this story was about. It was about a hurricane. TV mets have nothing to do with forecasting the path or intensity of a cane. They have nothing to do with where or who are affected by watches or warnings. For the most part they just read what comes fron the NWS/NHS. The more serious the situation the less a typical TV met will stray from the official forecast.

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Wow looks like I touched a nerve. Sure TV Mets sometimes stray from the NWS official forecast. Usually when it doesn't matter. A few more clouds tomorrow, a degree or two lower tonight. Thats not what this story was about. It was about a hurricane. TV mets have nothing to do with forecasting the path or intensity of a cane. They have nothing to do with where or who are affected by watches or warnings. For the most part they just read what comes fron the NWS/NHS. The more serious the situation the less a typical TV met will stray from the official forecast.

No nerve was hit, just don't want people thinking TV mets can't think for themselves ;) You are correct about us not having a thing to do with forecasting the path or intensity of hurricanes nor us having to issue watches or warnings. In that regard we do read what the NHC puts out. The forecasting we do with respect to hurricanes would be local impacts; topography, streams or rivers prone to flooding, streets susceptible to flooding, storm surge impacts and how far it goes inland, etc. All these things are important to our viewers. That's what we forecast for hurricanes. If we have time in our on-air forecast, we can detail the different impacts if the storm wobbles one way or the other. It's not like we sit on our hands and read whatever the NHC puts out :lol::PThat would be irresponsible of us to do lol

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