... the spring, the summer, The chilling autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world By their increase, now knows not which is which.

A local newscast is using a reworded version of the holiday song “It’s A Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” to tout their weather team. (Keep in mind, we’ve just come thru a rough snow storm that shut down all sorts of transportation the day after Christmas.)



My reaction the first time I heard this was “Really—that’s what you’re going with?”


Then it hit me: extreme weather is like crack for forecasters. They love this stuff. The more horrendous it is, the better. (Remember Al Roker getting blown over while reporting out in a hurricane?)

During the recent storm that basically crippled most of the Northeastern part of the country, the newscasts (both national and local) had reporters out and about throughout the storm. We’ve all seen those spots: “This is So&So reporting to you live from [insert name of roadway/community]. I’ve got my yardstick here to measure how high the snow is….” The weather folks are as happy as pigs in you-know-what.

[I do have to admit to wanting to smack some of the people who get stranded for hours on end on a snow covered highway. Didn’t you check the forecast before you left? Wasn’t there some moment early on in the journey when you realized that turning around was your best option?]

It always cracks me up when they have the forecasters reporting in the midst of gale force winds and torrential downpours. I mean, we really don’t need these guys risking life and limb—we get it, it’s bad out there.

On Monday, a network reporter was broadcasting from runway 3 at Boston’s Logan airport… “This is the only runway they’ve been able to keep open during this storm…” Well then get the hell out of the middle of it dillweed. Sheesh.