How do your news stations handle "weather" events?

[imagirliegirl]

I am so annoyed right now! There are thunderstorms in another part of the state right now and we are under a watch until 10 pm so about 1/4 of my TV screen is being assaulted by scrolling weather alerts and flashing maps! I'm talking no breaks...constant scrolling. It's driving me insane.

Now, when I lived in Texas, they would cut in and scroll along the bottom of the screen every 15 minutes or so for severe weather - like thunderstorm warnings with high winds, flash flood warnings etc...

But here...oh my gosh they will scroll for anything! I have seriously been looking at the same message for the past hour and a half. And since we're under this thunderstorm watch (oh no!) until 10, I'm looking at another hour and a half. Great!

Are my news stations just over the top or is this common practice where you live as well?

:rolleyes:

[Ericka_Jarett]

we will get alerts on the bottom of the screen that run about 2-3 times and then it goes off

[conneals]

Last Thursday, we were having some pretty severe storms in our area, something like 2-3 tornados. The news was on from about 7:15 pm(Central) until about 8:30 pm. I don't have an issue with that, heck tornados are severe, but I was very disappointed that they did not tell us when they were going to rebroadcast my shows!

In our town, there is a big weather war. One channel is very alarmist and the other channels kind of make fun of it.

In respect to the screen, there is usually a little map in the lower right corner of the city with the counties all lit up!

[KiKi'sMommy]

I live in Oklahoma, so we pretty much expect to have some of our shows interrupted during springtime weather. Usually, if it isn't anything big (thunderstorms) they may have a little map of the counties in the viewing area on the bottom left hand of the screen. If there are alerts, they will run the map and maybe some scrolling on the bottom of the screen. They will interrupt commercials if it is not in the immediate area, but once it gets within a certain distance, they just straight up interrupt everything. They get seriously excited about weather here, but I think we are all just kind of used to it. I remember as a kid running to my bedroom when they broke in with a weather report because we ALWAYS had storms in the springtime and it scared the pee out of me. There is still something nerve wracking, yet exciting about the way they act when we have "wicked" weather, to use a term of my favorite local meteorologist.

[BusyBee21]

Our "news" channels (and I do use the term lightly) are high on the alarmist news, and we frequently hear "STORM WATCH" when expecting an inch or two of rain, and it often takes up a quarter of the local news when it rains. Totally over the top, ratings-seeking BS. When there are storms or potential mudslides, fires, etc. we do have the information ticker across the bottom of the TV screen for most of the night, no fooling.

It's a joke to most who live here, because really, we don't have "weather", not like the rest of the U.S. :p

[karlatta]

We usually have the little map of counties in the bottom corner, then they'll scroll a message across if anything important changes (watch changes to a warning, warning gets extended, etc.).

[IrishEyes]

When we get big snowstorms (which for here is 6 inches or more), the local news takes over all the programming. I still remember one Sunday, when we were getting ~a foot of snow, that we were subjected to constant measurements of the snow banks by local reporters (sticking yardsticks in the snow) and then a recipe for making snow cones out of snow. DH just wanted to watch golf, but they preempted all of the programming for the whole day.

[isign]

Ours is pretty good. If it's really bad, they will interrupt for a few minutes and then get off as fast as possible. Now during hurricanes, while we're evacuating, they are great. They keep info scrolling, and a box/map on the bottom. Usually every 30 min they give a good update on closings/mandatory evacuations/shelters, and a good update of the storm.

[ambula704]

Ugh, ours can be bad. I live in a place that gets a TON of tornado watches and warnings (although thankfully not that many actual tornadoes!) but they always interrupt programming to come in. I also live in an area that includes 3 other states. So if there is a tornado warning in Illinois, they will interrupt my show and tell me about it (I live in KY.) Its super annoying and although I understand they need to do it to be safe, I wish they would just scroll more at the bottom. I especially hate it when I sit through a commercial, and moments later they break into my show and take up about 5 minutes-mostly scrambling through their notes or taking a cell phone call of someone who has seen a tree fall down!

Other than that we have the map with highlighted counties for watches and such.

[Medako]

There is still something nerve wracking, yet exciting about the way they act when we have "wicked" weather, to use a term of my favorite local meteorologist.

Trav's Wicked Weather! :D

I'm in Oklahoma too, so my experience is the same as KiKi'sMommy. We miss a lot of regular programming during the spring and summer months, but it's just something we're used to. Besides, watching a tornado out the window is way more exciting than anything on tv!

This is what went right past us the other night. We were able to listen to the storm chaser follow the storm within a mile our house because the news broke into programming.


Look closely and you can see the funnel - it was getting dark, so the view wasn't the best..
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i162/mom2jackryan/May1030.jpg

[Chimichanga]

Living in Wisconsin, every snow storm is "the storm of the season/century". :rolleyes: Because, you know, we never get snow in Wisconsin.

Actually, this winter was pretty bad. After the first three 6+ inch snowfalls, the news stations toned it done a lot. Which was good.

During spring weather, we'll get a bar on the side of the screen with a map, but it goes away after awhile. We may also get a "Watch/Warning" icon near the station information, but that's about it. Usually they do have updates during the commercial breaks so they bust out all the scrolls/maps then too.

[katmg]

One local station ALWAYS cuts in Oprah for weather and "breaking" news. I've decided it is because the other two stations have news on at that time so in order to compete with them they have to break in or else they won't be able to say they were the 'first to bring' us the news. Really annoys me when it is just a rain shower. :rolleyes:

Other than that, most of the time they are pretty good about just having a scrolling bar across the bottom or a map of the counties affected.

[kari]

Here in northern California, we don't really have "weather". The exception is during the winter/rainy months when there might be floods (which hasn't even happened in the last 2 years...)