Attack of the Light Drizzle

[Michael]

Attack of the light drizzle!

How weather was taken over by the hype machine

If you live anywhere around Greater Boston, you probably felt heroic about making it into work during what turned out to be the Storm That Wasn’t. You must remember it, some 11 days ago. With the nation’s capital socked in and New York shut down, we braced for a crippling whiteout of our own, glued to weather reports of the approaching snowmageddon.

Cities and towns closed their schools, airlines grounded their planes, and the governor told “nonemergency” state workers to go home early. And then...nothing. The storm gently dusted our streets with snow and moved on. People felt a bit ridiculous afterward, and even angry toward the meteorologists and city officials who got us so worked up.

If you’ve started to feel that anticlimaxes have become the norm in Boston, you’re right. But it’s not because something has changed about the weather. It’s that something has changed about its packaging. Weather, especially on TV, has exited the realm of straight news, and even of entertainment, and entered the realm of marketing.

Source (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/02/21/attack_of_the_light_drizzle/)

This article hits the nail on the head! I was planning on posting a rant about how the 6 o'clock news on tv has become utterly unwatchable now. It has essentially become an hour long weather report, occasionally interrupted with tidbits about some local cat stuck in a tree or some other such inanity.

But I must say that our news/weather media have definitely been playing this game. Any impending snow flurry is treated as if it will be the mother of all winter blizzards. They start warning (hyping) it days in advance. Often as not, it turns out to be nothing. Really tedious that is.

I think the public has a fetish for disasters and media is just playing to this with weather reports. :shrug:

[drgoodtrips]

For the network news around here, you're missing one key component. Namely, it has to start off with a quick laundry list of the day's local murders.

[Michael]

For the network news around here, you're missing one key component. Namely, it has to start off with a quick laundry list of the day's local murders.
Sorry, we don't get that around here. If there was a murder today, you can be damn sure that it will be the lede story and dominate the newscast.

In Toronto, we only have one murder every 10-11 days (statistically speaking).

[drgoodtrips]

Sorry, we don't get that around here. If there was a murder today, you can be damn sure that it will be the lede story and dominate the newscast.

In Toronto, we only have one murder every 10-11 days (statistically speaking).

I always see that and think, "I don't really care." I suppose that sounds callous, but given that Chicago alone has 3 murders per day, and factoring in the surrounding suburbs, it's just not really that noteworthy in my opinion. They don't start the day newscast with all of the day's heart attacks or construction accidents. It's almost as if doing that somehow allows our region to pretend that murder isn't a common occurrence.

[Americano]

Source (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/02/21/attack_of_the_light_drizzle/)

This article hits the nail on the head! I was planning on posting a rant about how the 6 o'clock news on tv has become utterly unwatchable now. It has essentially become an hour long weather report, occasionally interrupted with tidbits about some local cat stuck in a tree or some other such inanity.

But I must say that our news/weather media have definitely been playing this game. Any impending snow flurry is treated as if it will be the mother of all winter blizzards. They start warning (hyping) it days in advance. Often as not, it turns out to be nothing. Really tedious that is.

I think the public has a fetish for disasters and media is just playing to this with weather reports. :shrug:

Merchants sell a lot of basic goods with a TV threat of transportation being limited due to weather. Good media call.

Weather is one of my minor hobbies. Those who depend on talking heads for weather forecasting, for most information, will often be disappointed.

[Lily]

Merchants sell a lot of basic goods with a TV threat of transportation being limited due to weather. Good media call.

Weather is one of my minor hobbies. Those who depend on talking heads for weather forecasting, for most information, will often be disappointed.

Weather geek? Really? Moi aussi. Although I despise Florida summers, hurricane season is the one thing that makes it interesting.

One of our stations has a new weather tracking system (aren't local stations always coming up with the newest and latest?). It's called Klystron. Sounds like a venereal disease.

[Americano]

Weather geek? Really? Moi aussi. Although I despise Florida summers, hurricane season is the one thing that makes it interesting.

I've had personal weather stations for years. Currently a Davis Vantage Pro 2 wireless. Screen sits right next to my PC monitor. The National Weather Service 7-day forecast browser tab is always open on my PC.

One of our stations has a new weather tracking system (aren't local stations always coming up with the newest and latest?). It's called Klystron. Sounds like a venereal disease.

When they have their own satellites in place they might have something to talk about. Most use data feeds from the national weather service with flashy (often named) software presentations and interpretation by talking heads commonly 24-48 hours behind current forecasts.

[Americano]

I missed the edit window, pic of weather station terminal next to PC screen for Lily.

For a brief period, at my wife's suggestion, I sent photos to one of the two local TV stations weather department in the nearest larger city (60k pop, 45-minutes away). Sunsets, lightning, etc, and discovered the weather broadcast too painful to watch just to see my photos. Talking heads are trained in those small towns to fool big city audiences.

[Michael]

Oh man, you really are a weather geek! :lol:

I tend to out to the balcony when I want to know the weather!

[Americano]

Oh man, you really are a weather geek! :lol:

I tend to out to the balcony when I want to know the weather!

My weather station data gathering and sending unit does that for me. With a glance at the receiver screen. With far more information than anyone but a hobbyist or geek could appreciate.

[Lily]

My weather station data gathering and sending unit does that for me. With a glance at the receiver screen. With far more information than anyone but a hobbyist or geek could appreciate.

Dang! I want one of those. I have a number of sites I visit and, of course, a wind-up weather band radio (a necessity in Florida), an outside/inside temperature gauge and a rain gauge. But I want one of those! That's like, ultimate weather geekdom. :D

[Americano]

Dang! I want one of those. I have a number of sites I visit and, of course, a wind-up weather band radio (a necessity in Florida), an outside/inside temperature gauge and a rain gauge. But I want one of those! That's like, ultimate weather geekdom. :D

Might be difficult to gain approval for mounting the data gathering and sending unit on a condo roof, but it is wireless.

[Lily]

Might be difficult to gain approval for mounting the data gathering and sending unit on a condo roof, but it is wireless.


Yeah, that might be a problem. Condo people tend not to like anything out of the ordinary. I don't know, it scares them or something. No pick-up trucks, pink curtains, lawn gnomes. Not that I own any of those things, but, you know...

[Americano]

Yeah, that might be a problem. Condo people tend not to like anything out of the ordinary. I don't know, it scares them or something. No pick-up trucks, pink curtains, lawn gnomes. Not that I own any of those things, but, you know...

That's because you're an immigrant to Florida. When I think of Florida large flying bugs come to mind with pink lawn flamingos to scare off the bugs. That and summer humidity so dense as to rival Louisiana.

[Lily]

That's because you're an immigrant to Florida. When I think of Florida large flying bugs come to mind with pink lawn flamingos to scare off the bugs. That and summer humidity so dense as to rival Louisiana.

I've lived here since 1960, so I'm practically a native. lol The immigrants from Ohio, New York and Michigan are the ones who tend to be afraid of our weird ways, especially the transplants who are condo association and HOA board members.

They're the ones who have bright green St. Augustine lawns even when Florida is suffering from drought, who live on water-sucking golf courses and get really upset if you try to xeriscape your yard, especially with native plants. They wouldn't like my land. Not a bit of landscaped anything anywhere. Just a couple of acres of natural Florida.

While we natives know to control the Palmetto bugs with well placed borax tablets, and we know that some inside spiders are actually a good thing, transplanted Floridians will spend hundreds of dollars spraying poison everywhere.

[Americano]

I've lived here since 1960, so I'm practically a native. lol The immigrants from Ohio, New York and Michigan are the ones who tend to be afraid of our weird ways, especially the transplants who are condo association and HOA board members.

They're the ones who have bright green St. Augustine lawns even when Florida is suffering from drought, who live on water-sucking golf courses and get really upset if you try to xeriscape your yard, especially with native plants. They wouldn't like my land. Not a bit of landscaped anything anywhere. Just a couple of acres of natural Florida.

While we natives know to control the Palmetto bugs with well placed borax tablets, and we know that some inside spiders are actually a good thing, transplanted Floridians will spend hundreds of dollars spraying poison everywhere.

I remember a drought in Las Vegas when no lawns other than golf courses were to be watered under any circumstance. One very wealthy neighbor, a Los Angeles transplant, left his sprinkler system on to water his massive lawns twice daily. About three times a week the city would have someone at the entrance guard house to cite him and someone went out to accept the ~$250 citation. For the entire summer, even though they spent the majority of summers at their Lake Tahoe residence.

[Michael]

On the subject of lawns, Toronto has been doing pretty good. Inside the core of the city (downtown) almost all the little tiny private front lawns are gone now, replaced with wild gardens, wild grasses or rock-gardens, or gravel, or whatever. Inside the city, most front lawns are postage-stamp sized to begin with, so this makes sense (people make jokes about having to buy a lawnmower to cut twenty square feet of grass). Many backyards in such houses already consist of a big patio surrounded by a fence (unless it is an 'ethnic' neighborhood in which case it is always little farms out back!).

The trend is now moving out to the 'inner-belt' of suburbs. This is quite an achievement because one has to get city bylaws changed to permit it. Apparently every municipality has bylaws that state that you MUST have grass on your front lawn and you must take care of it (if you let it get overgrown and people complain about it, the city will cut it and give you the bill). Thus, in most urban municipalities, it is against the law to tear up your front lawn and replace it with a low-maintenance, environmentally friendly rock-garden, or wild grass (or whatever).

This has been going on very slowly now for about twenty years, but it is interesting to see it out in the suburbs these days where the lawns are much larger (and way more 'traditional' white picket fence type places). Environmentalism is slow progress at the best of times.

[Americano]

I'm told we require trimmed grass to reduce dust entering the house when windows are open. Without numerous deer that can and will in late summer crop anything green down to the ground, we'd use water efficient plant ground cover.

[Lily]

On the subject of lawns, Toronto has been doing pretty good. Inside the core of the city (downtown) almost all the little tiny private front lawns are gone now, replaced with wild gardens, wild grasses or rock-gardens, or gravel, or whatever. Inside the city, most front lawns are postage-stamp sized to begin with, so this makes sense (people make jokes about having to buy a lawnmower to cut twenty square feet of grass). Many backyards in such houses already consist of a big patio surrounded by a fence (unless it is an 'ethnic' neighborhood in which case it is always little farms out back!).

The trend is now moving out to the 'inner-belt' of suburbs. This is quite an achievement because one has to get city bylaws changed to permit it. Apparently every municipality has bylaws that state that you MUST have grass on your front lawn and you must take care of it (if you let it get overgrown and people complain about it, the city will cut it and give you the bill). Thus, in most urban municipalities, it is against the law to tear up your front lawn and replace it with a low-maintenance, environmentally friendly rock-garden, or wild grass (or whatever).

This has been going on very slowly now for about twenty years, but it is interesting to see it out in the suburbs these days where the lawns are much larger (and way more 'traditional' white picket fence type places). Environmentalism is slow progress at the best of times.

That's starting to happen in some communities here, but many of the HOA people are freaking out. They want their green lawns in their deed restricted communities and don't want to hear about native plants or ground cover, small veggie and herb gardens or anything else that actually makes sense. It's going to be a fight.

[Americano]

That's starting to happen in some communities here, but many of the HOA people are freaking out. They want their green lawns in their deed restricted communities and don't want to hear about native plants or ground cover, small veggie and herb gardens or anything else that actually makes sense. It's going to be a fight.

Big fight. One of the major problems in condos and middle-upper class homes is someone else does the maintenance and people fight change of any type.

It's idealistic, but if some of the less-affluent people with lawns had a functioning brain cell they'd realize the cost savings and health benefits of a vegetable garden. Even a small one produces more than a family of four can possibly consume. But no, they pay someone to maintain the lawn and eat fast food while glued to a big screen of some type that furnishes idiot level entertainment.