Did you know that the person deemed “America’s Weatherman” is not actually a weatherman? He is a communication and journalism major. I don’t see anything wrong with this as my degree just happens to be in Communications, not Meteorology. I strongly believe that my job as an aviation weather forecaster is 70 percent communication and 30 percent weather. There is a marked difference between my experience in weather and TV weather personalities though: I spent seven years as an Air Force weather forecaster prior to achieving my Bachelor’s degree and moving into my civilian position working as a forecaster for the Navy. Broadcasters tend to “fall in to” the weather desk due to their on camera abilities and not so much their meteorological prowess.
Weather is the one of the most trending topics on Twitter. People want to know what to expect for the day and use social media outlets more and more to get their information. When the forecast is for extreme weather, the numbers amplify due to the volume of people wanting to contribute to the conversation whether to gain more information, share the same information, or add new information. Social media is directly linked to televised media evidenced by the constant coaxing by on-camera personalities to tweet or send messages on Facebook.
When you add a broadcast meteorologist’s flamboyance, persuasiveness and exaggeration with the general public’s opinion of the storm (two cents) you get a good old fashioned telephone game and a recipe for disaster. The message gets hijacked, distorted, over-hyped or under-hyped then regurgitated throughout the twitter-verse for users to interpret as they wish.
Broadcast meteorologists need to remember that they are in part journalists with a responsibility to report the weather objectively. When it comes to hurricanes, they need to default to the experts: The National Hurricane Center (NHC). Too many times during the hours leading up to Hurricane Irene last year I encountered forecasters putting their own spin on the forecast track and intensity of the storm; this is not an acceptable practice for professional meteorologists. The notion is to take a risk to try to be the most correct to get acclaim and “toot your own horn.” The problem with this is it is a risk. Weather is an inexact science and forecasts are educated guesses. There is a chance that a forecaster will get it right but there is also a chance that they will get it wrong.