Weather Annoyances

Bob Hill apparently hit a nerve with his article about local coverage of storms. Most people seem to be annoyed at the fact that programming they want to watch is preempted by the coverage.

Having been in a tornado once, I am kind of glad that they break in and stay on. But I do have several pet peeves about local coverage myself:

1) The breathless excitement that certain meteorologists seem to have at the storms (John Belski and Jay Cardosi, that refers to you). When you watch these guys, it seems as though they take delight in the fact there's terrible weather bearing down on the area. At least Belski allows other meteorologists in the studio to say more than two words before interrupting, unlike what he used to do.

2) Any technology labeled "HD". Why not call it "Digital Dopler HD Blog MySpace Hybrid Technology" just to cover it all?

3) The interruption of audio for the national weather service warnings. The NWS is always a day late in their updates and you gain nothing by the interruption because the channel you're watching gets the same alert at the same time.

4) The fact that WHAS radio now uses WAVE TV coverage rather than a dedicated radio meteorologist. Hearing Belski say, "As you can see here" does me no good when my power is out and I'm listening to the radio.

5) The zooming, swooping, rotating and disorienting radar. I compare it to trying to read a document while someone else is working the mouse. Just when you see what you want to focus on, they move it on you. And some of the "3D" angles make it impossible to tell where the storm is in relation to the ground.

6) Coverage that extends well after it leaves the Louisville area. I cannot believe that people in East Podunk are watching coverage from Louisville to get their weather information. Also, tell me if we're in for more or we're in the all clear so that I can change to another station.