No, really, they must have been on crack when they came up with this one. I have no other explanation that works.
First a primer. What is “Space Weather”? Wikipedia (agreed not the best source but humor me, at least they understand the basics) says that it is:
Space weather is the concept of changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space or the space from the Sun’s atmosphere to the Earth’s atmosphere. It is distinct from the concept of weather within the Earth’s planetary atmosphere (troposphere and stratosphere).
You can see what that’s all about at NASA’s spaceweather.com
Note the “distinct from the concept of weather”.
Now, try to wrap your mind around that and this image below and figure out how they managed to get space weather to burn down the Empire State Building.
Yes that’s right, Space Weather. They ask the question “Ever thought about what would happen if Earth’s temperature reached 900 degrees like on Venus? Chances are it won’t be a good day! Buildings are reduced to dust in moments! Watch Deadliest Space Weather only on The Weather Channel, Thursdays at 9”
When I first saw this, I thought to myself “this has to be some sort of spoof“. Sadly, no. Here it is on TWC’s website:
But wait, there’s more! Space Weather causes acid rain and two-eyed cyclones too!
The descriptions:
– A bad day on Earth is nothing compared to a day on Venus! Winds create a massive cyclone with two eyes and rain that turns life forms into a pillar of carbon! Find out more on Deadliest Space Weather, only on The Weather Channel, Thursdays at 9pm!
– 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 on Deadliest Space Weather, Thursdays at 9 on The Weather Channel!
Do they even hire science or meteorology majors at TWC anymore?
I’m just stunned. This has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.
UPDATE:
John Coleman says in comments:
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.
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Based on the little bit of it seen above, I think you *might* be over-reacting here a bit, Anthony. This looks like a bit of mildly enlightening what-if scenarios that depict weather conditions on other planets as they’d appear on earth. You can talk about thousand-mile-an-hour winds or atmospheric temperatures of 900 degrees, but these days it’s relatively easy to actually depict it and to do so on a gloriously catastrophic scale (to satiate the appetites of those Mayan calendar dooms-dayers who are still probably sulking).
It isn’t ‘check your numbers’ science — it’s more like Nova’s Science Now program; dumb, but good to watch when there’s nothing else on and you’re looking for yummy eye candy to go with your popcorn.
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 !
Can you imagine if Venus did the same thing?
“Imagine liquid falling from the sky that can dissolve salt! Imagine temperatures so cold, H20 turns SOLID!”
Are they writing articles for The Onion now?
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?
What if a cereal-specific, micro-miniature Black Hole of a sudden drained everyone’s oatmeal breakfast into Zombie Land? Would that be Global Weather, Space Weather, or Whether Weather, and absent oatmeal how would the undead survivors know?
@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.
@Bryan Johnson,
Uhh…not unless you’re talking about politics. Here, video here (2:20 min)–“75% of Wikipedia edits are made by 2% of users”– and, Molad December 28, 2012 study here.
Aw, cut them some slack. They’re just “journalists, after all.
@TomE,
Actually, it’s about money. Reality shows came into being after Robin Leach proved in the late 80s and 90s he could produce a winning show (“Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”) with a $10,000/episode cost. Robin told me that he was vicious about keeping costs down in order to produce massive profits. When the networks found out about it–he kept it secret for a long time–they realized that they could use real people with a 15-minutes-of-fame addiction–think the “Housewives” series–to produce product that let them dump their $200,000 to $500,000 per episode cost of producing regular dramas and documentaries. The networks counted on one thing: Americans wouldn’t object because they were too dumb and uneducated to catch on.
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)
Anthony, you just made me glad I do not watch TV. Every decade or so I give it a shot. It is about time to try it again but I think I’ll pass for another ten years.
Is it climate change, or the attack of Ming the Merciless? It’s ambiguous from the pictures…
psion (@psion) says:
January 3, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Based on the little bit of it seen above, I think you *might* be over-reacting here a bit, Anthony. This looks like a bit of mildly enlightening what-if scenarios that depict weather conditions on other planets as they’d appear on earth. You can talk about thousand-mile-an-hour winds or atmospheric temperatures of 900 degrees, but these days it’s relatively easy to actually depict it and to do so on a gloriously catastrophic scale (to satiate the appetites of those Mayan calendar dooms-dayers who are still probably sulking).
=====================================================================
OK … but such things belong on “The Fantasy Channel”, not “The Weather Channel”. TWC used to the weather, not surreality TV.
Somebody already mentioned it, but The History Channel has gone the same route. It used to be they had some good shows with good info. Not always accurate (In “Blood and Iron” I could have sworn they called the Tirpitz a “pocket battleship”.) but good. If they did a show on “Big Foot” it would be about exploring the legends and aleged sitings etc. Now they go out to try to find the da*m thing! Most of the show would be about them setting up their cameras and what they thought just might have been Big Foot was really just a coyote. But maybe next time ….
John Blake…you have a great future in Hollywood…or as the next Education Czar.
Yes but, it is not about science or weather or rational or anything other then entertainment, viewers and ratings. Want to see it change, boycott the sponsors, all of them, but do it quietly so it generates no further publicity.
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.
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”.
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?
The title “Weather in Other Places in Space and Depicted on Earth Too” seems a little long; unfortunately the shorter “Space Weather” is also a specific term that probably didn’t cross their minds. Unless they start claiming this is where we’re going unless you stop burning fossil fuels (etc.) then I don’t have a problem with it on an individual piece basis except for the unfortunate title. I do have the more than casual concern over the ”entertainmenting” of science in general that if memory serves began in the late 80’s. I can remember when I was growing up watching documentaries with my father; they weren’t so much entertaining as they were informative, not that it’s impossible to be both (James Burke). I just fear something important is being lost in this process, that perhaps information is being sacrificed for entertainment instead of the other way around (kind of like when a shorter title unwittingly uses terms in a nonsensical manner).
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.
I wouldn’t casually dismiss the link between space weather and weather on earth. Red sprites suggest an electrical connection between space weather and thunder storms.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120713-sprite-international-space-station-nasa-science-red-lightning/
http://www.holoscience.com/wp/the-balloon-goes-up-over-lightning/
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”.
Clearly its a job for Superman to save us.
Ummm, can’t ALL RAIN eat through steel? Isn’t that what CORROSION is?
‘Deadliest weather identified on other planets and arbitrarily applied to Earth’ hasn’t got the same ring to it…