The infomercialisation of meteorology

[bpo]

Growing up after hearing droaning forecasts with little soul and energy almost drew me to drink.

Why should the rest of us have to worry about your problem?

Yes there was accuracy but warnings took months to be delivered plus our presentations were laughable on TV and radio I believe.On more than one occasion I fell asleep either listening or watching a report!

Again, why should your ditzo schoolgirl-like attention-span and desperate need for excitement in all things impact the lives and needs of grownups?

I enjoy the new social network aspect and communication is far quicker.

So, hysterical gibbering megahype sound bytes delivered by drugged-up epileptic monkey creatures on an electrified hotplate is preferable to intelligent delivery of facts? Therein lies the problem...

There are areas to improve upon...

No kidding! Such as all of it.

...ut this Nana says keep it up and change with the times.

If "change with the times" means replace something useful with something that definitely isn't as in this case, then I really don't know how to respond.

Life isn't an exact science and never will be.

Every bone fide scientist on the planet begs to differ. At the very least, meteorology is an exact science. Your lack of understanding of that science doesn't make it any less so.

Accuracy is great but life doesn't have a blueprint which makes it far more interesting.

And there it is: The reason bookshops have no room for, say, Sky & Telescope, or Nature, or anything else worth reading... Because they are stuffed full to the rafters with several trillion women's gossip rag titles.

NZ: Where the public presentation of meteorological science has been reduced to the sewer-level of airhead bimbo celeb trivia gossip obsession.

But hey, it's so exciting now! No more dull facts. Active weather systems have become "beasts" and "monsters." All we need now is for these presenter-clowns to start making live sacrifices to the storm gods and civilisation will have peaked.

Now excuse me, I have to go breathlessly read about Kanye and Kim in New Idea and Women's Day and Women's Weekly and Cosmo and Cleo, and then call me friend who lives one street away and excitedly blabber about it all for six hours. Oh no, wait... That's behind the times... I'll Facebook and Twitter about it instead.

Giggle giggle.

[Manukau heads obs]

Why should the rest of us have to worry about your problem?

why should the rest of us have to keep reading your attacks on people as well?

ditzo schoolgirl-like attention-span

thats not what this forum is about

[03Stormchaser]

While we all wont agree with hype around facebook, warnings, methods of forecasting etc I think it is still good to have discussion about it, even if some of it appears some what off-topic...

So while Ive been given the honourable title of 'keyboard warrior' just recently by some its time to lock this thread

[Tornado Tim]

From my point of view, Weatherwatch does have a purpose. However I think it needs grounding. I.e: backgrounds and study/research into Meteorology to give some factual stance on situations and not to simply fall back on some numerical model runs.

This isnt a slide against WeatherWatch and the team that work there, think of it as areas that they could improve on.

In terms of getting its point across I think Weatherwatch excels at, with Metservice its more reserved which can work for and against. It would be very hard balance to make, and in someway or another someone is not going to be happy with what a particular company has issued.

Bpo, I think your point has been made, but at the end of the day....it comes down to this:
"This world aint perfect, we just have to deal with it and move on"........

A remember to all about the forum rules, dont attack the person, just debate the issue and discuss it as adults...please.