My name is Bert and I’m a Weather Channel junkie. It started innocently enough; sneaking an occasional peek at the local radar. Then I found myself sticking around for the next Local on the 8’s just for the smooth jazz. The progression from there was steady and predictable: Glued, trance-like, to the couch for re-runs of ‘Storm Stories’ and ‘When Weather Changed History’; setting my alarm 20 minutes early to catch ‘Wake up with Al’ so I could get my morning Stephanie Abrams fix. My downward spiral was further enabled by weather.com. I knew I needed help when I found myself checking the local radar to see if it was raining instead of just looking out the window. 
Admit it. If you’re a gardener or work with gardeners, you’re probably hooked too. Hard to imagine a Saturday or Sunday morning that doesn’t start with tuning in to TWC or clicking on weather.com. The local radar and weather warnings, of course, are indispensible. We had a frost advisory in our area last night and I’m sure some folks will get an extra couple weeks out of their annuals if they paid attention and got them covered.
An often-overlooked feature on weather.com that I encourage gardeners and landscapers to use is the wind forecast. If you go to your local hourly forecast and click on ‘details’, it provides an hour-by-hour forecast for local wind conditions. This is a great way to plan any herbicide applications (e.g, Round-up or Weed-B-gone) you may be contemplating. Doing a little planning and spraying when conditions are calm is one of the best ways to avoid off-target injury.
So clearly there are plenty of reasons to keep us hooked and tuning in, even if some aspects of TWC are getting just a little too predictable:
Studio anchor: And now we go to Jim Cantore, who’s on the Outer Banks where Hurricane Holly is about to make landfall. Jim, what’s the latest out there?
Cantore (braced against a gale but looking studly in his official Weather Channel raingear): Well, just like the other 73 hurricanes I’ve been in, it’s raining. And the wind is blowing really, really hard!
Cut back to studio anchor: Thank you, Jim, for that insightful report.
The Weather Channel, live by it.
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For my money Accuweather radar on the internet is the best invention of the 21st century. Around our landscape office I’m known as “Doppler Dave”.
Any reason why you called it Hurricane Holly? lol
Jim Cantore – hubba hubba !
I have the Weather Channel Desktop at work & home, & the WC app on my phone as well. Here in the land of eternal sunshine (California), folks think I’m nuts, but they turn to me as soon as there’s any change expected. The husband & I have managed to get the kids addicted as well, especially during winter storms.
Ed, Any connection between ‘Hurricane Holly’ and the ‘Dr. Mister Smartypants’ wisecrack is purely intentional!
Bert, as you kn
ow it’s nearly impossible to predict weather in the coastal Pacific NW (so I’m not a WC addict). And I’ve got the forecasters beat, anyway.
Several years ago, I gave myself a hairline fracture in my skull direcly behind my nose (it involved a barbell and stupidity). Anyway, whenever there’s a barometric pressure change I get a migraine headache. I have nearly a 100% accuracy rate of predicting significant rainfall in the next 24 hours!
Ed, Any connection between ‘Hurricane Holly’ and the ‘Dr. Mister Smartypants’ wisecrack is purely intentional!
Linda: Maybe you can contract yourself out to KING TV-5!
PS: Typhoon Linda was my other choice but I can never resist the allure of alliteration.
You know, I was wondering that very same thing (the always appropriate and aestethically appealing ability to alliterate).
Ha!/Argh.
I have my own ultra-nerdsky weather station – the Davis Vantage Pro 2000. Am connected to Weather Underground – can check anytime for weather data from our front yard! Jim Cantore is The Man, though.
I’m a weather junkie, also known as “weather weenies” in the online community. Sadly, I don’t think I’ve watched TWC since their “Golden Age” in the mid to late 90s. Online at weather forums like easternuswx and StormVista, TWC forecasts don’t carry a lot of weight. Accuweahter (aka InAccuweather or Accublunder)and Intellicast (aka Intellicant) don’t either, especially of you mention accuweather mets by name. At those forums you do have quite a few NWS, TV, and private mets posting regularly, as well as many gifted amateurs. For quick weather forecasts, outside of my own of course, I use NWS and radar data from Wunderground or NWS. If you’re going to pay for it, you’re better off going with WxTap or one of the GR products, though they are a bit advanced. As for hourly forecasts, outside of temps, they are basically meaningless.