Is your meteorologist off the mark?
Cory Bergman May 29th, 2007
A terrific cover story in Broadcasting & Cable examines how the advent of long-range forecasts at local TV stations could be damaging their credibility. For example, the 10-day forecast, with specific predictions down to exact temperatures, is becoming standard issue at most stations. Dr. Anthony Socci, a senior fellow at the American Meteorological Society (AMS), says it’s like throwing darts. “(Meteorologists) are selling a skill that isn’t there, and they’re not being candid with viewers.” With internet weather growing in popularity (after all, why would you wait for a specific time to get your weather?) TV stations are pulling out all the stops with “endless rounds of one-upmanship” in technology, marketing and forecast tools.
We’ve written about this before, but I believe it’s critical that TV stations shift their thinking and spending from TV to the web when it comes to weather. Standard weather coverage on TV will no longer be a reason to watch (breaking weather coverage is a big exception), and people are shifting online in droves. So create powerful weather technology online that allows users to personalize their experience, and then extend that technology to TV. In other words, meteorogists on TV should be using your web-based technology to deliver the forecast, reinforcing the need in viewers’ minds to use your website the rest of the time. Under this approach, the web is the primary forecast destination, and TV is a complement. If we don’t make this switch soon, we’ll give away our franchise to Weather.com, the portals and national news sites, which already have much better weather technology than most local TV sites. It’s already happening.
10 Comments Add your own
1. emily | May 29th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Why bother relying on TV meteorologists for weather when they are basically para-phrasing what is on the NWS site just with more flashy graphics.
Besides, with a properly setup backyard weather station and some software called WXsim, weather predictions can be done in the comfort of your own home.
2. Steve Safran | May 29th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I suggest TV stations do this simple exercise:
1. Go to Google and enter their city name and the word “weather”
2. See that their TV station doesn’t come up in the top listing
3. Enter their zip code and surrounding zip code and “weather” and see the same
4. Buy the keywords so you come up first
You’ll beat the competition in an instant. It’s inexpensive marketing. BUT - and this is key - you have to deliver on the promise. You have to have a customizable product on your end. You have to have more than a regional forecast.
I can go to Weather Underground and get forecasts from every neighborhood and conditions from each weather watcher’s personal weather station.
If you follow Cory’s above web-based model, invest a little in the web-based Google ads marketing and you’ll see instant returns.
3. discreet_chaos | May 29th, 2007 at 9:07 am
If you put weather followed by the zip or city name, both of the major portals will bring-up a forecast.
Of course, back to my “big state” argument: The forecast is for one of the official stations and they’re about 80 miles in either direction, so I generally use my local television’s site for short-range forecasts because they tailor it more to my location. (Generally, there’s about ten degrees difference between the two official stations and out west, the mountains, canyons and elevation have a lot to do with precip)
But, hey, I will agree that some television do need to work on their delivery. In my market, there’s one station that records a video forecast with their morning guy and it remains unchanged until the following morning. Generally, the video becomes useless before lunch and I’m back to accuweather for their radar.
4. thedetroitchannel | May 29th, 2007 at 9:26 am
i’ll give some credit where it’s due, but why on earth do you need google?
5. Charles | May 29th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Weather HAS to be the most-watched aspect for GM’s everywhere, considering it’s the #1 reason people watch local news. The “big wig” in my market, WOOD TV8, updates their video forecast a few times throughout the day, has multiple radar/satellite feeds avaliable, not to mention lots of the meterologist have blogs. (One blog in particular, “Bill’s Blog,” is used by the online community to give storm reports whenever there’s something big happening.)
They may not be right always, but they are t pro-active in staying on (ahead of?) the curve.
On a bit of a side note, I do feel bad for meterologist who aren’t working in a Great Lakes state… At least here in West Michigan, we see storm systems weakened or strenghtened by Lake Michigan - and it’s kind of hard to tell when either will happen. (Not to mention lake-effect snow in the winter!) It’s a very tough state to forecast for, and in the office they can just blame it on the lakes if they wanted to. You can’t do that in Nebraska!
6. thedetroitchannel | May 29th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
yes charles, thegrandrapidschannel(dot)com also does a great job with its weather efforts too.
try it sometime.
7. Echy | May 30th, 2007 at 4:30 am
All weather forecasts come from NOAA. You can spin it anyway you want but it won’t make me watch the local TV news.
8. Everett W. | May 30th, 2007 at 9:21 am
All weather forecasts do NOT come from NOAA. Much of the weather data and computer forecast model info may come from NOAA but trained meteorologists can and do make their own forecasts.
9. Vic | May 30th, 2007 at 9:56 am
I believe the biggest challenge for broadcasters is that they treat the entire market the same. Their are only a handful of forecasts that can be produced given the staff they have. In order to provide truly personalized weather with thousands of forecasts, you need automation and forecast models. This goes agains the grain of a TV Met who produces a forecast. They simply can not micro-forecast thousands of locations. People want and expect more personalized weather for their home, work or school. Broadcasters are going to have to rethink how they provide weather on the web. The web is not a TV.
10. mike jones | May 30th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
The biggest change that stations need to make is to invest more in weather on the web — where people want forecasts to their zip code — and stop paying the millions to a chief met that makes (or has a weather prodcer make) one forecast for a 200 square mile region.
The golden age is over for high salaried mets… Localization will equal wins in this game, not personality.
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