Climate Craziness of the Week: The Weather Channel on crack

OK, just to be clear; the website http://www.spaceweather.com isn’t run by NASA, doesn’t run kooky stuff like that, and is clearly focused on astronomy; the only thing Earth-related that they do is auroras, meteor showers, eclipse photos and the like. VERY informative and reasonable.

If a large coronal mass ejection from the sun struck earth, what would be the result? In a case like that I would suspect both space weather and earth weather phenomena would be the result.

Unfortunately cataclysmic earth centered disasters seem to be the only way to get Americans interested in science. But some of them are fun.

The picture in the upper right hand kind of looks like the Eye of Sauron.

LOL. Well, technically in a few billion years, when our Sun goes Red Giant, I guess some of that will be true. But I doubt the Empire State building will be standing.
To be accurate “space weather” is really the offshoot of Solar Activity like CME, etc. The term was developed to keep lay people from getting confused – guess that failed.
Space Weather is best visualized as the Northern Lights – which is of course ions traveling down the EM paths to the poles.
It has NOTHING to do with weather UNLESS you subscribe to the cosmic ray impact on cloud formation. Which of course is the theory which challenges C-AGW and CO2 driven climate/weather changes.
So look at this way, at least the alarmists are now getting all alarmed over something probably more real than CO2/H20 forcing run amok.

Fear sells, no matter if real or not.

Well you just ensured their traffic peak of the year.
I think someone over there got a certain type of mushroom for Christmas.
Or is there really a cool-ade which causes cataclysmic weather disorder?

John Coleman must be spinning in his grave. Oh wait – he’s not dead. Maybe he will wish he were when he sees what his programme has devolved into.

Oh my Gaia! They told us global warming was going to be hot. But, no, it’s gonna be even hotter than hot! [sarc/]
It kind of reminds me of the way alien invasion movies became popular during the cold war. Whether they were simply tapping into genuine and justified fear within society or actively trying to whip up paranoia and hysteria is much debated. But at least they never purported to be anything other than fiction.
This on the other hand …

Like the series what would happen if people disappeared, lots of silly conjecture interspersed with occasional interesting observations. I can’t wait for their next series “what would happen if you used a hand grenade as a suppository”
Larry

And people can still keep a straight face while they tell us it’s worse than they thought ?
If any of this is even remotely related to science I’m sending my degree back !

The bottom line is always the same. A person, a business, a TV channel, a college science department, the IPCC, et al will do whatever is necessary to exist. If a TV channel wants to exist it must have viewers. The public likes violence, sex, and anything weird and dramatic. So they are just giving the public want they want. We have seen results of studies claiming more violence. The next will probably be more sex, thus more humans creating more CO2. I wonder if one could call that a positive feedback?

@Bryan
“I do have to stand up for Wikipedia, though. Although there is no editorial board, per se, that also means that there is no agenda-driven group controlling the content.”
I wish………
You obviously have not heard of the Green Party activist named William Connolley who rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles. As Wikipedia a website administrator, he also removed and barred over 2,000 Wikipedia contributors who he disagreed with.

Aw, cut them some slack. They’re just “journalists, after all.

Gentlemen,
I have been worried for some time now about what would happen if the Earth just stopped spinning on its axes one day. Now don’t tell me that can’t happen, I saw it in a movie once in the 50s. (or maybe I dreamed it) So there!
We need to get Federal money to study how to prevent this from happening! (well, I do at any rate since I have a theory already of how to stop this horror from occurring)

Is it climate change, or the attack of Ming the Merciless? It’s ambiguous from the pictures…

It’s become horribly apparent that the human race will never evolve beyond the gullibility to the scary-weather-boogy-man. The ‘expert’ kings, high-priests and shamans made their living on it thousands of years ago. And still do.

Pure alarmism, scaring people like that, because everyone knows the weather on other planets is just like it is here in earth. After all how would those Venetians and Martians survive in weather they describe?

As founder of The Weather Channel I am deeply saddened by what has become of my life’s work. I poured everything I had at the prime of my life into creating a basic channel that was focused on a mission to provide accurate and complete weather information for their location and the rest of our nation within a few minutes to everyone who tuned in. As televsion whiz kids have replaced adults and dedicated meteorologists the channel has been reduced to a hodge podge of silliness. Nothing against the many fine people who work there. But, a curse upon their leaders.

Let me try again with the correct links, hopefully….
Two eyed cyclones? Nothing new. Check out:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(1982)1102.0.CO;2
for the abstract, or for a pdf of the whole paper go to:
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0493(1982)1102.0.CO;2
Right – two eyed cyclones occur in the Pacific when they form on both sides of the equator. It’s a big factor in the growth of el Nino. They do not set buildings on fire.
I confess, I wrote this paper back when we used electric typewriters. Note the hand drawn figures. Figure 3 is a two eyed cyclone. Figure 4 shows ten years of them – not common, but not “unprecedented”.

Ummm, can’t ALL RAIN eat through steel? Isn’t that what CORROSION is?

Mr. Coleman, you have my deepest sympathies.

Gads, one more try. I think the WUWT server removes some characters, like brackets, from the link, so I’ll use different spellings.
Two eyed cyclones? Nothing new. Check out:
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0493%281982%29110%3C1405%3ATROCET%3E2.0.CO%3B2
for the abstract, or for a pdf of the whole paper go to:
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0493%281982%29110%3C1405%3ATROCET%3E2.0.CO%3B2
Right – two eyed cyclones occur in the Pacific when they form on both sides of the equator. It’s a big factor in the growth of el Nino. They do not set buildings on fire.
I confess, I wrote this paper back when we used electric typewriters. Note the hand drawn figures. Figure 3 is a two eyed cyclone. Figure 4 shows ten years of them – not common, but not “unprecedented”.

Guys, give the Weather Channel a break. How would you like to try to fill 24 hours a day, 7 days a week of a blank screen, when all you had was bog-ordinary everyday weather, and only girls three ax handles across the beam (or continuously pregnant) to present it? You would get desparate for content too!
REPLY: Oh please, John Coleman and Joe D’Aleo did it in the early 80’s with what would be considered ancient technology now – and they succeeded and had a greater audience, because they stayed on factual information, not fluff. – Anthony

When I read this, there were a few things in the descriptions that jumped out at me. “Winds that create a massive cyclone with two eyes and rain that turns life forms into a pillar of carbon!” If you were an average person reading that, you might note “pillar of carbon” and think of “carbon pollution.” Then the next paragraph: “Imagine acid rain that can eat through solid steel! This isn’t the plot of a Hollywood disaster movie, it’s weather happening now in our solar system! See more extreme weather…”
Think as an average person might think. They have heard that weather is gettting more extreme, acid rain exists, carbon is bad, cyclones and tornadoes are increasing, ad nauseaum. We live in the solar system, therefore these things must be happening to us!!
The Weather Channel is just laying some groundwork for the newest buzzword: SPACE WEATHER. I am sure that it is even worse than Extreme Weather. After all, those nice people at The Weather Channel know all about weather, don’t they? ( sarc for last paragraph)

TomE says:
January 3, 2013 at 3:14 pm
“The Weather Channel has just become another quick stop on the channel flipping. Seldom is there weather reporting actually on the channel;”
Absolutely right. I do not use them for my weather information, either on line (directly) or on cable. They have become too infantile and extreme for me to stomach anymore, much like the Weather Underground…

Space weather is a serious matter. There are people who continuously watch the sun for events like coronal mass ejections so they will know when high energy particles might reach the earth. This is very important because satellite operators as well as some terrestrial equipment operators (i.e., communications and electrical grid operators) must know what’s coming so they can mitigate potential problems before they occur. The US Air Force has five observatories located around the world so they can continuously monitor the sun/space weather in order to protect DOD assets in space.
http://www.afweather.af.mil/units/spaceweatheroperations.asp

I’d say meth, not crack.

It sounds to me like some kids having fun with computer graphics. It might actually be fun to watch. Perhaps they could have chosen a slightly different name than ‘Space Weather’ and it should probably be on the comedy channel instead, but if they portray it as ‘tongue-in-cheek’ it has potential.

They’ll do a monumental grand expose’ on the Global Catastrophe that is Venus with lots of graphics, pseudoscience, speculation and what-if’s pointing at the runaway climate possibilities here on Earth, “If Earth were 21 million miles closer to the sun, blah, blah, blah.” You know they have a fear/tax/control agenda behind it.
Do you think big Al is on the producer list? I think this is a last ditch effort to scare the few remaining sheeple that get all their news from the MSM.
This makes me glad I kicked the Weather Channel to the curb in favor of real forecasting so I’d know what to sort of anticipate the next couple of days.
Dave

Michael Dingley, Senior VP of Content and Development for the Weather Channel, had the pleasure of announcing the new show to the entertainment press. Here’s an article from Variety magazine. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118062216/?refcatid=4154&printerfriendly=true
When he was hired by TWC the network had this to say,
“Dingley has more than 20 years experience in multi-platform, non-fiction content management in local, national and international markets, including 11 years at HGTV. There, he held roles of increasing responsibility including senior vice president of programming and content strategy. During his tenure at HGTV, he established an extensive lineup of shows including House Hunters, My House Is Worth What? and Design Star. Prior to that, Dingley worked at Discovery Communications where he was an executive producer developing non-fiction programming for both the Discovery Channel and Learning Channel.”
Mr. Dingley has been very busy since he joined the network. From BassAnglerMag.com,
“Reel Rivals” joins an ever-growing slate of original series for The Weather Channel, including recently announced “Deadliest Space Weather” (2013), “Coast Guard Alaska,” “Iron Men,” “Lifeguard!,” “Ice Pilots,” “Hurricane Hunters,” “Hawaii Air Rescue,” “Coast Guard Florida,” “Plane Xtreme,” “Prospectors” (2013), “Tipping Points” (2013), “Turbine Cowboys,” “Pyros,” “Iceberg Hunters” and “Reef Wranglers” (2013).”
Mr. Dingley attended University of Rochester and Boston University. My bet is that his degrees were a B.A. and an M.A. But he’s certainly Summa Cum Laude for his honorary BS.

I rather like the topic. It catches the attention of viewers by hooking into something they know to explore something maybe they don’t know. Classic segway. I have no problems with the way this was presented to consumers.

You obviously have not heard of the Green Party activist named William Connolley who rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles.
No-one disputes that WIkipedia has some bad areas.
What you ignore is that traditional encyclopedias are no better. Back in the “good old days” Thor Heyedahl wrote whole sections for Encyclopedia Britannica. And full of rot they were too.
Do you think Encyclopedia Britannica would be any less warmist than Wikipedia? If anything it would be worse, because errors of fact would creep in too. And it would be out of date rubbish.

My take is that the station must have run out of daily weather catastrophes to run for 24 hours and now must place our earth’s civilization on other planets. Rude on its surface, but surely so far beyond the pale, that people would realize that we have the climate that we have because we are where we are. Meaning we are not scorchingly close to the Sun like Mercury and Venus and not freezingly distant like Mars etc.
I agree with Anthony. This is surprisingly poor sense for a supposed scientific channel operation (just the facts, Mamm) as opposed to science fiction based scare-fare.
Hopefully TWC will make that clear. If so everyone can then rejoice that our climate is defined by our physical location with respect to the Sun and all interactions with it.

Y’all realize that when you have weather anywhere its gonna establish a climate and, wherever you have a climate you’re gonna have ‘climate change’ and, when you have ‘climate change’ you’re going to need a federal program to combat it. Hey, so how about few $billion to combat galactic climate change? We’re already $trillions in debt so who’s gonna care?

The Weather Channel, like the rest of the Malthusian MSM, has a death-wish agenda for everyone but the Weather Channel, MSM elite. But there’s too many people who refuse to believe their scare tactics. I think they should name their next American “winter fear-mongering for weather progressives” storm El Stupido, in honor of our leftist fear-mongerers in American academia. Any excuse to keep in fear those un-normal people smart enough to realize the sun rises and sets, the seasons come and go, and that mankind will never be powerful enough to set aside the normal order of God’s creation. Oh, by the way–did you hear that Algore just made $100 mil by selling Current to the bad guys who didn’t even have a chance to invest in the Chicago Climate Exchange with him, Soros, and Barack Hussein? Just askin’

The Weather Channel should be moved to the Syfy Channel.

It will drive a lot of traffic for ratings and thats the bottom line in t.v.

Funny, looks like the weather channel is suffering its own form of Sci Fi Tech Escalation. This is when you get to series 7 of anything and it makes the tech in Series 1 look like pea shooters & sharp sticks in comparison…
Next, what the weather will be like if the Earth gets sucked up by a Black Hole!

Evidently you have missed their ground breaking series “It Could Happen Tomorrow”.

The weatherchannel is disgusting, mawkish PCism. Turn it on & invariably someone interviewed is crying…

As several others have pointed out, “Space Weather” is defined as the electromagnetic
interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and the changing interplanetary magnetic
field and energetic particle environment dominated by the Sun. Their title simply
confuses matters.
What their series SHOULD have been called was “Planetary Weather”. Then they
could have done their nice little sensationalist CGI stuff. “Imagine acid rain that would
eat steel”–and convey to people a scientifically correct picture of how marvelously
GENTLE the weather on Earth actually is, compared to other locations in the Solar
system.
John Coleman, you have my sincere sympathy.