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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Mr. Coleman, you have my deepest sympathies.
If the weather channel is on Crack then what are they taking at the MET office?
April 2012 the MET office says:
“SUMMARY – PRECIPITATION:
The forecast for average UK rainfall slightly favours drier than average conditions for April May June as a whole, and also slightly favours April being the driest of the 3 months.”
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/p/i/A3-layout-precip-AMJ.pdf
December 2012 the MET office says:
“The exceptionally wet year was characterised by a dry start which quickly gave way to very wet weather, with April and June both being the wettest on record.”
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2013/2012-weather-statistics
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”.
But wait, it’s even grodier than we thought! Not only will Space Weather make the earth as hot as Venus, it will make stone – y’know, like that stuff on the outside of the mall? – like totally boil away at only 900 degrees (is that Farenheit or Celsius? Oh well, whatever; Mr. Heinlein’s always ragging on us about those nits, like I’m shurrr it rilly matters) and, um, wait . . . is stone steam the same as, like, dust? Whatever; it will be rilly, rilly heinous and we’ll all have to wear those shiny metal suits like Devo. Gag me with a spoon!
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
@Gail Combs says:
January 3, 2013 at 3:55 pm
I share your attitude and currently, I’ve ditched the cable/tv portion of my service. I needed a break; I watch youtubes instead (currently doing the James Burke series). But I would urge you, if you can afford it, to start watching even if it causes you great pain ;-). Society needs smart observers, and if all the brains abdicate their responsibility to comment on what the hoi polloi is ingesting mindlessly, society’s cancer deepens. There are lots of names for this: the tipping point, the hundredth monkey, whatever. But a cogent comment from you–and I am assuming you are a scientist from your postings here–may change a life as a result of the trajectory of your expressed accumulated wisdom. But you need the bridge of what’s feeding them. Just a thot. Also, could make you more fun at the local bar where everyone is doing mortal combat with their soul watching Fox. 😉
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)
I don’t think I have encountered a more clear cut call for drug testing at any organization.
😉
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…
This is space weather
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
The Weather Channel has been off the rails for years.
I stopped watching it, even before I came here.
I’d say meth, not crack.
Ohs noes. And on Pluto with its various moons, the weather is so extreme that we don’t know what it is. It rains ethane on Titan too. Imagine what would happen if you struck a match. Actually, nothing would happen, there is no oxygen even if you could get it hot enough to vaporize, it would not burn.
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.
Daniel says:
January 3, 2013 at 4:35 pm
Ummm, can’t ALL RAIN eat through steel? Isn’t that what CORROSION is?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OK buddy, you gotta take responsibility for your comments. Do you want to come over and clean my keyboard or shall I send it to you in the mail?
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
DBD says:
January 3, 2013 at 5:28 pm
I’d say meth, not crack.
Anthony, technically, literally, I’ve got to agree with all who are criticizing the title …
The Weather Channel, and all of its CACA-derived (depaved) theists who religiously follow the CAGW meme-song condemning millions to an early death by denying them cheap energy, cheap heat, clean water and clean rivers and clear air, and more food, is NOT “high” on coke, meth, pixy dust, or drunk on alcohol.
It IS however, simultaneously and continuously overdosing on coke (burnt coal), and methane, cement dust, and ethanol (subsidies). 8<)
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.
it’s got to be acid or LSD, not crack or meth. Only acid or LSD can cause such intriguing hallucenations.
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.
Too much cola and Ed Wood films between medications as teenagers.
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.
The only time I “consume” the Weather Channel anymore, is during blizzards and hurricanes.
They do produce, in those conditions.
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.