Asheville News

A winter weather rant

Jason Sandford January 18, 2007

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

WLOSer weather-guessers missed again.

After winter weather advisories and winter weather warnings and endless weather crawls and WLOSers standing alongside of dry roads, all we got in Western North Carolina was a few ice pellets. We’re going to start measuring weather precipitation in terms of the number of microscopic ice pellets that we get at home. This morning, we got 10 tiny pellets.

How many pellets did you get?

WLOSers couldn’t correctly predict the weather if their hair and makeup depended on it. It’s accu-hunch all the way. A hunch. A guess. An estimate. Only the “future-cast” never includes grounding context. You’ll never hear Julie Blunder or Cuervo Cuevas say during their weather-guessing something like:

“So to sum it up, we could see a mixed bag of snow, sleet and rain in the morning. Or, folks, this storm might amount to nothing at all. Good luck with it.”

Any sort of honest disclaimer would reveal the WLOSer faux weather people for exactly what they are – pretenders. Soothsayers. Best-guessers.

The sad part of all this is that WLOSers are playing on a base aspect of human nature – the “worst case scenario” mentality. There’s something about us humans that makes us prone to worry and fret over the unknown. Why do you think so many people read horoscopes or get their palms? With the weather, we play into it all by rushing to Ingles to buy bread and milk, then wrecking our car on the way home in the cold rain.

Maybe all this global warming stuff will have one positive impact – no more winter, which means no more stupid WLOSer snow sirens. ~~sigh~~

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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6 Comments

Ted January 19, 2007

I haven’t seen Cuervo Cuevas for about a week. Not sure how he can get it wrong when he is not around. Also, I recall the snow we got recently was in the forecast. If you are going to rip, at least give credit when credit is due.

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bill January 19, 2007

I have a real simple solution.

I don’t watch the TV "news" anymore. Don’t miss it. Not one bit.

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Screwy Hoolie January 19, 2007

I got one ice pellet, a flurryish snowflake, and a bit of sleet that turned to rain as it fell past my chin.

The air in Hendersonville was a beautiful crystallizing fog.

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A to the P January 18, 2007

Worst case weather is what gets the ratings. As soon as you guys stop watching it, they’ll stop doing it.

and having worked in a couple markets…it seems as though you think wlos has exceptionally innacurate weather casts.

As has been mentioned before, they make the same guesses everyone else does.

More than half the nations TV stations get their weather data from accuweather, which means they almost all make the same guesses based on the same info.

Weathercasting sucks anywhere you go. I’ve been there and seen.

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mish January 18, 2007

Looks like we barely got a dusting.

Am I missing something, or do they not have a AMS-certified meterologist on their staff??

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RadioLongAgo January 18, 2007

In defense of the weather guys, apparently many years ago the format of Run For Your Lives weather started and worked with the public. Use the word "storm" a lot…probably what the consultants prescribe…

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