Snow bomb obs March 21

[henry1978]

8 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

I thought Todd gross improved a lot by the time we got to the late 1990s. I'd throw Barry Burbank on that list of good ones too. 

There was a met on WBZ back in the late 1980s name Dave Murray who I liked too...explained things well. But he didn't stick around long. Ed Carrol came along a few years later and was a wet blanket for snow weenies...loved to downplay events. Burbank was relegated to weekends at that point...dark years for wbz. 

Barry Burbank was the number 3 guy at wbz for so many years, just like Rosenthal was the number 3 guy at wcvb for so many years. Both capable, but Barry's likeability enabled him to stay around to this day in a business when guys over 55 get dumped universally. I was never a huge Dickie fan, but his colleagues loved him and channel 5 was number one from the moment he arrived till the moment he left but I think chet and nat had a lot to do with that and the strength of Peter Jennings that followed them.

Dave Murray is a good broadcaster. He's still working in st louis or at least was up until a couple years ago.  However, he read his forecast off a teleprompter.  Barry Burbank was assigned to assist him on his first broadcast at channel 4.  Murray wrote his entire forecast and fed it into the prompter. This was I think in 1986. Bruce was demoted to mornings, remember MVFR and aviation weather courtesy of bruce?  Well anyway on this first night murray was in town, the late night model runs shifted, yet Murray refused to change his forecast and edit his text into the prompter.

It wasn't till years later after Carroll became chief met, when Barry went from number 3 to number 2 and took over the weekday morning shift which he had for a good long while. I think Barry may have been prime time for a year or so. Ed Carroll was there because he was a great speaker but you're right he had no enthusiasm for snow and wound up in Springfield. I think once Ed left, that's when barry was briefly the prime time guy but I don't think he ever had the title of chief met.

Harvey is in a class all by himself. It's important to note during the hey day of boston tv news when local news was king before cable and the internet Harvey was not number one.  Channel 7 was a distant number three and Harvey took a big back seat to bruce and Dickie because channel 5 was number one and channel 4 was a respectable second.  But the weather community, the professionals in the industry, and the new England weather aficionados knew Harvey was the best despite never working at a top rated station until arriving at channel 5 I 2002.  Not just because he was the best communicator with the fastest rate of speech, but he ate, slept and drank weather. After arriving in PVD in 1974 remarkably he's still going strong, in an era where just about all his peers in the top ten markets are long since out of the game such as guys like bob ryan in dc.

[ORH_wxman]

3 minutes ago, weathafella said:

One thing about Todd I need to mention.  I used to go to the annual SNE wx conference every year.  I saw Todd Gross exhibit tremendous kindness to a special needs boy who was unrelated to him.  He rose big time in my book as a human after that.

Todd was def a pretty nice guy at least out in the public scene...I heard he really clashed with the news director at WHDH in the early 2000s when they first came in replacing the old one.

But there's no doubt he was a true snow weenie...he got very energetic during threats. Esp in his later years on WHDH (late 90s/early 2000s)

[henry1978]

5 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

I think BOS got into a subby hole in that one...we had 10-11" back in ORH from the weenie band out west...then amounts dropped off to almost zilched in the CT Valley (sorry codfishsnowman)

 

The Cape got annihilated...I recall parts getting 24 inches.

Extremely rare event.  The storm backed in and gave coastal SNE a left hand hook. Accumulating snow I'm not even sure reached new haven. Most of RI and SE MA all had over a foot.

[weathafella]

Todd also was a major supporter (maybe founder?) of the mIRC #weather.  I had gone the first 50 years of life with no internet-a lonely weenie. When the internet came I realized I was not alone In this obsession that I’ve had since my earliest conscious memories around age 3.

[CoastalWx]

Todd was pretty good in 2003. Maybe he played into his weenie bias, but he was more aggressive for 2/7/03, PDII, and the 3/6/03 event...all were forecasted to slide south. 

[ORH_wxman]

9 minutes ago, henry1978 said:

Barry Burbank was the number 3 guy at wbz for so many years, just like Rosenthal was the number 3 guy at wcvb for so many years. Both capable, but Barry's likeability enabled him to stay around to this day in a business when guys over 55 get dumped universally. I was never a huge Dickie fan, but his colleagues loved him and channel 5 was number one from the moment he arrived till the moment he left but I think chet and nat had a lot to do with that and the strength of Peter Jennings that followed them.

Dave Murray is a good broadcaster. He's still working in st louis or at least was up until a couple years ago.  However, he read his forecast off a teleprompter.  Barry Burbank was assigned to assist him on his first broadcast at channel 4.  Murray wrote his entire forecast and fed it into the prompter. This was I think in 1986. Bruce was demoted to mornings, remember MVFR and aviation weather courtesy of bruce?  Well anyway on this first night murray was in town, the late night model runs shifted, yet Murray refused to change his forecast and edit his text into the prompter.

It wasn't till years later after Carroll became chief met, when Barry went from number 3 to number 2 and took over the weekday morning shift which he had for a good long while. I think Barry may have been prime time for a year or so. Ed Carroll was there because he was a great speaker but you're right he had no enthusiasm for snow and wound up in Springfield. I think once Ed left, that's when barry was briefly the prime time guy but I don't think he ever had the title of chief met.

Harvey is in a class all by himself. It's important to note during the hey day of boston tv news when local news was king before cable and the internet Harvey was not number one.  Channel 7 was a distant number three and Harvey took a big back seat to bruce and Dickie because channel 5 was number one and channel 4 was a respectable second.  But the weather community, the professionals in the industry, and the new England weather aficionados knew Harvey was the best despite never working at a top rated station until arriving at channel 5 I 2002.  Not just because he was the best communicator with the fastest rate of speech, but he ate, slept and drank weather. After arriving in PVD in 1974 remarkably he's still going strong, in an era where just about all his peers in the top ten markets are long since out of the game such as guys like bob ryan in dc.

Barry was offered the chief met role years ago, but he never wanted it. Preferred mornings from what I heard. I do remember him being most aggressive with the April '96 and April '97 events about a day out...and he actually sniffed out April '96 several days out...for some reason it seemed like he exceled in those late season events. Prob just memories of those two specific ones sticking out in my mind.

 

I don't think many people on here who have been around for more than 2 decades would argue with you that Harvey is the king of Boston mets. Extremely knowledgeable and undoubtedly the most accurate. He will be severely missed when he finally does hang 'em up (hopefully not for several more years). I still remember Harvey looking into the camera before January 2015 blizzard and saying something like "this is what we live for as meteorologists....these types of events which are so powerful and impacting, this is like our superbowl"....coming from Harvey, ever the professional, it was so funny to see him trying to hold his excitement in. You could tell he was pumped for that storm. Harvey is like one of those sports players who came in tearing up the league as a rookie (nailing 1978 first) and then still tearing up the competition deep into his waning years of his career long after he was hall of fame worthy.

[CT Rain]

2 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Barry was offered the chief met role years ago, but he never wanted it. Preferred mornings from what I heard. I do remember him being most aggressive with the April '96 and April '97 events about a day out...and he actually sniffed out April '96 several days out...for some reason it seemed like he exceled in those late season events. Prob just memories of those two specific ones sticking out in my mind.

 

I don't think many people on here who have been around for more than 2 decades would argue with you that Harvey is the king of Boston mets. Extremely knowledgeable and undoubtedly the most accurate. He will be severely missed when he finally does hang 'em up (hopefully not for several more years). I still remember Harvey looking into the camera before January 2015 blizzard and saying something like "this is what we live for as meteorologists....these types of events which are so powerful and impacting, this is like our superbowl"....coming from Harvey, ever the professional, it was so funny to see him trying to hold his excitement in. You could tell he was pumped for that storm. Harvey is like one of those sports players who came in tearing up the league as a rookie (nailing 1978 first) and then still tearing up the competition deep into his waning years of his career long after he was hall of fame worthy.

100% agreed about Harvey. He's also one of the nicest guys your meet. 

He's a great forecaster and does such a wonderful job presenting the forecast as well. 

[weathafella]

One of my best tv met memories was Don Kent standing in front of his map with a big hurricane warning flag hanging down for Gerda in September 1969.  In the end she veered out and we got what would be typical of a coastal soaking and modest wind event.  I recall going to the dentist in my first weeks living here to get my impacted wisdom tooth extracted.  Crosby Stills and Nash (pre Neil Young days?) was on the radio playing Marrakech Express.  Distinct memory now nearly 49 years old.

[henry1978]

6 minutes ago, weathafella said:

One thing about Todd I need to mention.  I used to go to the annual SNE wx conference every year.  I saw Todd Gross exhibit tremendous kindness to a special needs boy who was unrelated to him.  He rose big time in my book as a human after that.

I was there for a time at channel 7.  At the time the weather teams didn't have 5 members or a full time weather producer like boston stations have nowadays.  Todd wasn't always accommodating to me, but he wasn't nasty or arrogant like Schwoegler.  He was a loner at the station, and always wore his ski hat in the winter in a business where his colleagues would never mess up their hair.  After he got fired I called some tv executives on his behalf, including some of the cable news nets.  A few years later after he got fired from channel 7 he began doing free lance work at CNBC and was on air there during Sandy.  I'm not sure if my earlier intervention on his behalf landed him the CNBC free lance job where he worked on air there during major breaking weather events. Barry Burbank and Harvey leonard were the two nicest people I met in local tv.  Political reporter andy hiller was beyond rude, once telling me whoever cut my hair should be sued for malpractice. His producer asked me to write Ted Kennedy's obit and put it in the can for when the time came. teddy lived eleven more years.

[weathafella]

Remember Harv pulling on all nighter in 1997?  When the anchor sympathized he said “it’s a labor of love”. Not many people can get their dreams realized like that!

[ORH_wxman]

1 minute ago, weathafella said:

Remember Harv pulling on all nighter in 1997?  When the anchor sympathized he said “it’s a labor of love”. Not many people can get their dreams realized like that!

I remember both Harvey and Dick Albert pulled all nighters for the Feb 4, 1995 storm too...not nearly the big storm that '97 was, but years later I always surmised that they did it because that winter had been so awful that when a good storm finally came along, they'd be damned if the weekend met was gonna be stealing their thunder. So both were on their respective channels for the Friday primetime newscasts and then I recall seeing them on air all the next day during the storm. Dick Albert looked like he didn't even sleep...he was ready to be tossed into a sterilizer by the time that day was over. Harvey didn't look any worse for the wear...maybe he got a good night's sleep at home and came back. Dick looked like he slept on the coach at work.

[rimetree]

Wrote an e-mail to Barry Burbank one time...I think it was to congratulate him on an anniversary at WBZ or something like that. Anyway, he was kind enough to personally respond. Really nice guy.  

[ORH_wxman]

Just now, rimetree said:

Wrote an e-mail to Barry Burbank one time...I think it was to congratulate him on an anniversary at WBZ or something like that. Anyway, he was kind enough to personally respond. Really nice guy.  

I think I've sent maybe 3 emails to Barry over my lifetime (all years ago mostly during my college years)...he responded every time. Very nice guy. To back up Henry's story...I have heard from more than a few people in the business that Schwoelger was an SOB. But to be fair, I've also heard some that said he was a nice guy...so I guess it depends who you talk to...lol. But you don't hear the mixed opinions about guys like Barry and Harvey.

[henry1978]

Harvey never thought he'd be around this long.  I met him in 1995.  An aggressive and tabloid news owner from Miami had just bought the station and began shaking the place up, changing the paradigm of boston tv news with flashy graphics and loud jingles designed to attract younger viewers. He said it was possible that new ownership could get rid of him. I remember saying, "they'll never get rid of you."  They got rid of just about their entire anchor and sports team, but I think Harvey left voluntarily to go to channel 5 in 2002. going to channel 5 meant an easier commute and more eyeballs with a higher rated station, and a less stressful work environment because channel 7 had the highest turnover rate in boston and very aggressive news management teams acting on behalf of the Miami owner.

Channel 7 didn't always treat their employees with respect. Harvey was smart to get out. Their owner got screwed a couple years ago when he lost his nbc affiliation and I'm sure todd gross had a smile on his face.

[Amped]

1 hour ago, henry1978 said:

we have a winner folks.  The Bronx verified.  6-8 inches.  

I saw reports around 6 inches in Baltimore City.

And not much more inside and just outside the capital beltway. less than 5 in the district, reports of around 6 in Montgomery and 7 or less in prince George's. Who had the best forecast in DC? I know Capital weather gang has a million twitter followers.  They pretty much punted and didn't bite on the euro, but didn't totally discount it.

I'm all for entrepreneurship.  But making a buck off these maps is FAKE NEWS folks and the purveyors of these maps are doing a disservice to weather forecasters who earn a living at this because these clown maps pervert the process and they're becoming more prevalent. drudge is the king of conservative media, he is a weather buff, a literal weenie, and on occasion he's posted maps like this.

.  Euro did poorly on the south end, every other model did poorly on the north end. DC mets did a good job cutting back but not quite enough. And temps weren't the only problem, they had too much precip.

[STILL N OF PIKE]

I emailed Todd gross a couple times as i moved about New England asking him which places were best to live with regard to coastal front placement. Lmao (for real). He responded every time and obviously saw the weenieness of the question and prolly laughed to himself.

[ORH_wxman]

9 minutes ago, henry1978 said:

Harvey never thought he'd be around this long.  I met him in 1995.  An aggressive and tabloid news owner from Miami had just bought the station and began shaking the place up, changing the paradigm of boston tv news with flashy graphics and loud jingles designed to attract younger viewers. He said it was possible that new ownership could get rid of him. I remember saying, "they'll never get rid of you."  They got rid of just about their entire anchor and sports team, but I think Harvey left voluntarily to go to channel 5 in 2002. going to channel 5 meant an easier commute and more eyeballs with a higher rated station, and a less stressful work environment because channel 7 had the highest turnover rate in boston and very aggressive news management teams acting on behalf of the Miami owner.

Channel 7 didn't always treat their employees with respect. Harvey was smart to get out. Their owner got screwed a couple years ago when he lost his nbc affiliation and I'm sure todd gross had a smile on his face.

 

Channel 7 did offer him to stay from everything I heard, but they gave him a real lowball offer compared to WCVB. I don't even think he wanted them to match the offer, he would stay for less, but just be at least semi-competitive....they weren't. The WHDH management did a great job really screwing up their team between 1996-2005. I actually don't hate Jeremy Reiner on their now...he is knowledgeable. But I just don't watch the station very often now.

[CoastalWx]

17 minutes ago, weathafella said:

Remember Harv pulling on all nighter in 1997?  When the anchor sympathized he said “it’s a labor of love”. Not many people can get their dreams realized like that!

And I remember that look on his face. The look that basically said “what the phuck” without verbalizing it. That’s when I knew we were in for something special. 

[weathafella]

I remember visiting Boston a month after ‘78 and being dumbfounded at the amount of snow still otg!  I was staying at my friends place-a classmate and fellow weenie.  We called Harvey to chew the fat and also the first system since the blizzard was on the way (ultimately delivered 8 inches and the area collectively said meh...lol).  Harv was lamenting how good my friend and I had it and how tenuous his position was.  40 years later Harv (maybe 3 years younger than me) and I are keep on keeping on.  My friend (classmate) retired.  But truth be told-I’d trade places with Harvey.  I’m happy in my work and have enjoyed a wonderful career still ongoing.  

But Harv went for his first love and that would have been mine.  My parents discouraged me-being some kind of health care person was much more palatable in their eyes.   But hey life is good and I have a lot of job satisfaction and working into my 70s is a choice, not a necessity.  I bet Harv keeps at it if his health holds up.

[ORH_wxman]

8 minutes ago, weathafella said:

I remember visiting Boston a month after ‘78 and being dumbfounded at the amount of snow still otg!  I was staying at my friends place-a classmate and fellow weenie.  We called Harvey to chew the fat and also the first system since the blizzard was on the way (ultimately delivered 8 inches and the area collectively said meh...lol).  Harv was lamenting how good my friend and I had it and how tenuous his position was.  40 years later Harv (maybe 3 years younger than me) and I are keep on keeping on.  My friend (classmate) retired.  But truth be told-I’d trade places with Harvey.  I’m happy in my work and have enjoyed a wonderful career still ongoing.  

But Harv went for his first love and that would have been mine.  My parents discouraged me-being some kind of health care person was much more palatable in their eyes.   But hey life is good and I have a lot of job satisfaction and working into my 70s is a choice, not a necessity.  I bet Harv keeps at it if his health holds up.

Harv does seem to really enjoy his work still...hopefully they give him a lot more vacation time to keep the appeal...make sure he's fresh for each winter, lol. We all know he doesn't want to miss winter.

I seem to recall him being off during the week of the March 2013 firehose storm...then he rushed in from wherever he was to up the snow amounts about 24 hours out....lol. It's like he appeared out of nowhere.

[codfishsnowman]

1 hour ago, ORH_wxman said:

I think BOS got into a subby hole in that one...we had 10-11" back in ORH from the weenie band out west...then amounts dropped off to almost zilched in the CT Valley (sorry codfishsnowman)

 

The Cape got annihilated...I recall parts getting 24 inches.

lolol at 2/99...I remember crying in my oatmeal while eastern areas were crushed and I had wind fractured flurries under a mostly cloudy sky in central CT

[weathafella]

28 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Harv does seem to really enjoy his work still...hopefully they give him a lot more vacation time to keep the appeal...make sure he's fresh for each winter, lol. We all know he doesn't want to miss winter.

I seem to recall him being off during the week of the March 2013 firehose storm...then he rushed in from wherever he was to up the snow amounts about 24 hours out....lol. It's like he appeared out of nowhere.

Same thing for ‘97.  My friend’s relative married Harvey’s daughter and word is that if Harv is on vacation and something big blows up his wife is totally cool with him coming back early.  He’s a nice man, a humble man, and now he gets to reap the benefits of those traits with a really nice wife and family and one of the best jobs any of us can imagine.  Well deserved!

[henry1978]

18 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

 

Channel 7 did offer him to stay from everything I heard, but they gave him a real lowball offer compared to WCVB. I don't even think he wanted them to match the offer, he would stay for less, but just be at least semi-competitive....they weren't. The WHDH management did a great job really screwing up their team between 1996-2005. I actually don't hate Jeremy Reiner on their now...he is knowledgeable. But I just don't watch the station very often now.

great insight. I don't have any knowledge about what went on there beyond the late 90s. If Harvey had stayed at channel 7 it's doubtful his partnership there would have been as good as it has been with channel 5 and I doubt he would be still be on the air there 16 years later. 

Although they were peers when they began working at channel 5 together it was obvious Harvey was the lead guy despite Dick Albert's channel 5 seniority.  Dick had leukemia.  I'm not sure when he was diagnosed but it was certainly rare to have two chief METS working side by side. with lower ratings and fewer profits in the news industry that wouldn't happen today. Despite lower ratings across the board, 5 member teams are the norm in big city weather teams. This shows that weather in tv news is more important than ever. Tv news stations don't invest as much in syndicated programming as they used to because talk shows and game shows are not as popular so local tv stations are on many hours a day and it's cheaper than paying so much for the expensive and high rated syndicated programs of yesteryear like Oprah and donahue.  

As for the young guys today in top positions I think it's smart for guys like eric fisher and ryan hanrahan to be active on twitter because it gets their names, their brands, their stations out there during an era when local tv news is waning in popularity because so many folks are glued to their phones, devices, CNN, MSNBC and FOX.

The weather channel was sold today for a price of only 300 million.  It was sold for 3.5 billion in 2008. They pissed off a lot of viewers, cable and satellite providers.  They screwed up, because there's more interest in weather than ever before among the general public. They got greedy.  NBC became part owner a decade ago and they ruined the brand thinking they could get away with stopping doing live weather many hours during the day and at night thinking their documentaries and taped, long form programming could increase profits.  The reverse happened, and they pissed the cable and satellite providers in the process because their subscribers wanted weather and not reality tv like so many other cable channels do.  ESPN is suffering the same fate. During big hurricanes they still kick butt and out rate FOX, CNN and MSNBC.

[CoastalWx]

34 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Harv does seem to really enjoy his work still...hopefully they give him a lot more vacation time to keep the appeal...make sure he's fresh for each winter, lol. We all know he doesn't want to miss winter.

I seem to recall him being off during the week of the March 2013 firehose storm...then he rushed in from wherever he was to up the snow amounts about 24 hours out....lol. It's like he appeared out of nowhere.

He literally sent a tweet out less than an hour after Cindy sort of meh’d the event. I remember.... “confidence increasing on a major snowstorm for the Boston area.”

[OceanStWx]

2 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

The biggest difference I notice between the 1990s and now is the lead time on events. We thought it was amazing that forecasters tracked 3/93 from 5-6 days out. But that is pretty routine nowadays. There's still exceptions of course but most of the time the public catches wind of a storm threat at least 4 days out now. Back then they used to sneak up much faster....frequently ramping up from a vague threat to huge storm inside of 48 hours. The mesoscale busts still happen all the time since we just haven't gotten those down yet...so we're still almost on par with the 1990s when it comes to snowfall ranges. Can't really narrow them down to smaller ranges yet. 

I think that's a massive difference. Back in the day, people talked about the models sniffing out the all-time events. Once or twice a winter you had a 5 day lead on a big one. Now you have that lead on every significant cyclogenesis event. The predictability horizon of an "event" is definitely in the 5-7 day window now. The storms are nearly always there, but it's those 100s of miles differences, that on a global scale are tiny, are tough for the general public to reconcile when the access to model graphics is so far reaching.

[ORH_wxman]

2 minutes ago, henry1978 said:

great insight. I don't have any knowledge about what went on there beyond the late 90s. If Harvey had stayed at channel 7 it's doubtful his partnership there would have been as good as it has been with channel 5 and I doubt he would be still be on the air there 16 years later. 

Although they were peers when they began working at channel 5 together it was obvious Harvey was the lead guy despite Dick Albert's channel 5 seniority.  Dick had leukemia.  I'm not sure when he was diagnosed but it was certainly rare to have two chief METS working side by side. with lower ratings and fewer profits in the news industry that wouldn't happen today. Despite lower ratings across the board, 5 member teams are the norm in big city weather teams. This shows that weather in tv news is more important than ever. Tv news stations don't invest as much in syndicated programming as they used to because talk shows and game shows are not as popular so local tv stations are on many hours a day and it's cheaper than paying so much for the expensive and high rated syndicated programs of yesteryear like Oprah and donahue.  

As for the young guys today in top positions I think it's smart for guys like eric fisher and ryan hanrahan to be active on twitter because it gets their names, their brands, their stations out there during an era when local tv news is waning in popularity because so many folks are glued to their phones, devices, CNN, MSNBC and FOX.

The weather channel was sold today for a price of only 300 million.  It was sold for 3.5 billion in 2008. They pissed off a lot of viewers, cable and satellite providers.  They screwed up, because there's more interest in weather than ever before among the general public. They got greedy.  NBC became part owner a decade ago and they ruined the brand thinking they could get away with stopping doing live weather many hours during the day and at night thinking their documentaries and taped, long form programming could increase profits.  The reverse happened, and they pissed the cable and satellite providers in the process because their subscribers wanted weather and not reality tv like so many other cable channels do.  ESPN is suffering the same fate. During big hurricanes they still kick butt and out rate FOX, CNN and MSNBC.

Yeah TWC really screwed up for a while...I will say though that they seem to be turning it around. Their 2017 ratings were up like 15-20% over the previous year and this year is doing well again. Their live coverage in big events has really improved big time. They seem to recognize that live coverage is the way to go...focus on where the weather is happening and hammer it home. The need for the 5 day business planner and the travelers report sponsored by michelin tires repeating every hour is gone due to weather apps and internet. But people still tune in during an event for live coverage...and they seem to recognize that now more than ever. For a time in between about 2006 and a couple years ago, they had so much taped crap on there that even during winter storms, you were getting only brief live coverage at the top of the hour. They foolishly got rid of the winter weather expert Kocin for a time...but smartly brought back the position with Tom Niziol now on there (very smart guy...one of the leaders behind BUFKIT creation during his days at NWS BUF in the 1980s/1990s). I still really hate their named winter storms, but aside from that, I can say they have upper their game. Their severe and tropical coverage is quite good too....though nobody will ever match John Hope's knowledge.

[OceanStWx]

4 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah TWC really screwed up for a while...I will say though that they seem to be turning it around. Their 2017 ratings were up like 15-20% over the previous year and this year is doing well again. Their live coverage in big events has really improved big time. They seem to recognize that live coverage is the way to go...focus on where the weather is happening and hammer it home. The need for the 5 day business planner and the travelers report sponsored by michelin tires repeating every hour is gone due to weather apps and internet. But people still tune in during an event for live coverage...and they seem to recognize that now more than ever. For a time in between about 2006 and a couple years ago, they had so much taped crap on there that even during winter storms, you were getting only brief live coverage at the top of the hour. They foolishly got rid of the winter weather expert Kocin for a time...but smartly brought back the position with Tom Niziol now on there (very smart guy...one of the leaders behind BUFKIT creation during his days at NWS BUF in the 1980s/1990s). I still really hate their named winter storms, but aside from that, I can say they have upper their game. Their severe and tropical coverage is quite good too....though nobody will ever match John Hope's knowledge.

Live coverage (both national and local) of weather is huge for the NWS. We can't compete with their reach, and they can fire out info as quickly as we receive it. 

Remember back in April 2010 (I think) there was a tornado outbreak in the south and Cantore announced they were cancelling "Flick and Forecast" later that Friday night, only to flip his s*** when they decided to air the movie anyway. 

[henry1978]

yes. The days of a February 11 1994 high impact 12-18 inch snow event from New York to just south of Boston with less than 12 hours notice are over. If that event happened today, katy bar the door.  For you kids out there it was something.  It was one of Harvey's greatest calls of his career and he dominated the competition forecasting 8-15 at eleven pm on the Thursday night for boston on south. It began snowing along the south coast by 6am yet hardly any of the local schools cancelled in RI and MA because the storm came out of nowhere and it wasn't a topic of discussion around the water cooler like storms are today. Schools were letting out early in the afternoon and many areas south of the mass pike had close to a foot of snow on the ground at the time of dismissal by late afternoon.  Most of eastern MA had gotten nailed with over ten inches a couple days before and this storm was forecast to slide well underneath of us.  Imagine this happening today?  Imagine the tweets?

Most south coast areas had a foot plus, Manhattan had over a foot, Newark had 18, the southern boros of NYC had less because of sleet, Philly and DCA had mainly sleet and ice, and New Bedford to the canal had upwards of 19 inches.

[weathafella]

18 minutes ago, henry1978 said:

yes. The days of a February 11 1994 high impact 12-18 inch snow event from New York to just south of Boston with less than 12 hours notice are over. If that event happened today, katy bar the door.  For you kids out there it was something.  It was one of Harvey's greatest calls of his career and he dominated the competition forecasting 8-15 at eleven pm on the Thursday night for boston on south. It began snowing along the south coast by 6am yet hardly any of the local schools cancelled in RI and MA because the storm came out of nowhere and it wasn't a topic of discussion around the water cooler like storms are today. Schools were letting out early in the afternoon and many areas south of the mass pike had close to a foot of snow on the ground at the time of dismissal by late afternoon.  Most of eastern MA had gotten nailed with over ten inches a couple days before and this storm was forecast to slide well underneath of us.  Imagine this happening today?  Imagine the tweets?

Most south coast areas had a foot plus, Manhattan had over a foot, Newark had 18, the southern boros of NYC had less because of sleet, Philly and DCA had mainly sleet and ice, and New Bedford to the canal had upwards of 19 inches.

I went to a funeral in Sharon that day.  It took 5 hours to get home to Brookline.  I do remember some great rates.  Leon was roaring in those days!

[ORH_wxman]

2 minutes ago, weathafella said:

I went to a funeral in Sharon that day.  It took 5 hours to get home to Brookline.  I do remember some great rates.  Leon was roaring in those days!

We had an underrated thaw about a week after that event which lasted a good 4-5 days. Basically wiped out the pack we had. Though we quickly got it back with two advisory events back to back on the 23rd and 26th IIRC before the big one on 3/3/94.