As usual, I was watching the Weather Channel last night. I love the Weather Channel. Local on the 8's? I'll watch them back to back to back; every time that 8 comes around. I can name 3/4 of the meteorologists. Channel 19 dominates my television viewing. I love the maps. I love the temperature charts. I love the snowfall maps. I love the Weather Channel. I'm a total weather geek.

The Weather Channel drives me nuts. I can't stand it. Last night, when discussing the Northeast, which according the Weather Channel is Philadelphia, New York and sometimes as far north as Boston, they spoke of "brutal" and "frigid" temperatures. The number of that temperature: 19. 19!!!! Are you kidding me?!?!?!. That's neither "brutal" or "frigid". Not even close. A sunny 19-degreee day is a perfect day to cross country ski. The Weather Channel is ridiculous. Drives me nuts.

They need to move out of Atlanta. They are soft. Wimps. Negative 19 is frigid. Positive 19 is not. If you live in Atlanta, I'm sure that 40 is cold. With that in mind, it drives me crazy that the "national perspective" on temperature is disseminated from Atlanta. They might as well be in Belize.

So, they talk about these "brutal" temperatures, and then they nicely segue into a report on how thrilled the ski areas are with the new snow. Thanks for the plug, but why did you tell everyone it was "frigid" just ten seconds before? In the hinterlands, you know, north of Hartford, skiing is important for the economy. It's not just something crazy people do for a week in February. Skiing is the official state sport of New Hampshire. Skiing, of any kind, is a big deal.

Skiing will always have its die-hards. (Count me in as one of those. And thank you to those who are.) But for anyone on the fence about what to do this weekend, hearing about "frigid" and "brutal" temperatures will not get them off the couch.

"Honey, look at the snow they got in snow country this week. I bet the skiing is good."
"Yeah, but the weather dude just said it was going to be cold."
"Oh, I hate the cold. Let's stay home instead."

That's it. I'm not watching the Weather Channel anymore. I get too fired up. Well, not until tonight anyway.

Ryan @ Great Glen Trails

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Re: On the Weather Channel
by Flyin Farmer on Feb 18th 2007, 1:12 pm

Hey weatherboy! I agree with all your comments about the weather channel. However, did you know that Jim Cantore comes from White River Jct., VT. Thats just across the river from Lebanon, NH. In fact his mother still lives there. He sometimes mentions it on the show.

Re: On the Weather Channel
by Lynetteski on Feb 19th 2007, 7:52 pm

I like NECN. Tim Kelley, main weather guy in the evening, is from Cape Cod, but loves to ski, loves the snow, is happy to talk about impending powder. This guy gets psyched talking about New England. The daytime guy is Matt Noyes. He must be from New England, too, and you can just see his enthusiasm about the weather. He also has the best delivery, no hesitation and gets the message across. Oh, and they do "Weather on the Ones" most of the time, atleast.