Bloomberg reports that ratings are down 20% over three years, and with the sort of programming they continue with, such as this lame “forecast from 2050” with Sam Champion and go-to storm chaser guy Jim Cantore, where in a CGI based forecast, he laments rising sea levels while standing in fake water.
Here is the fake forecast video, sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (part of the U.N.):
It doesn’t look like their ratings and viewers will rebound any time soon, much like global warming itself, which is now in an extended pause that may last as long as 30 years.
Bloomberg reports:
DirecTV dropped the Weather Channel for about three months earlier this year after failing to come to an agreement about how much the network should be paid in affiliate fees. The Weather Channel agreed to cut back on its reality programming to include more local weather updates when DirecTV agreed to a new deal in April.
…
DirecTV, with 20 million subscribers, had pushed for a reduction of more than 20 percent in the fees it pays the Weather Channel, which had asked for an increase of 1 cent a month per subscriber.
The Weather Channel, based in Atlanta, averaged 13 cents a month per subscriber in 2013 and in 2012, according to estimates from researcher SNL Kagan. It averaged 214,000 daily viewers in 2013, down from 264,000 in 2011, according to data provided by Nielsen.
Maybe “Fat guys in the Woods” (yes that is really a TWC show) will save them:
Bloomberg also mentions that “the companies that own The Weather Channel—including Bain Capital, Blackstone, and NBC Universal—appear to be in the beginning stages of talks to sell the Atlanta-based weather behemoth”.
The billion dollar question is: who would buy it? NBCUniversal bought TWC in 2008 for about $3.5 billion. They’d be lucky to get half of that today in a sale, and any potential buyer would be even luckier to see any profit from it after the sale. Maybe Al Jazerra?
I used to watch the Weather Channel multiple times a day, especially when a storm was near, but after NBC bought them the programming has gotten near useless.
Now, when there is a storm, there will be a program on Alaska or the Coast Guard on the Weather Channel.
Here in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, there is a 24/7 channel on XFINITY covering only local weather that has the Weather Channel logo. WUSA (ch9) in DC has the most accurate forecasts, though. They also have a channel that gives national forecasts a la TWC but none of the silly programming. WUSA also has a weather app with up to the minute radar images and forecasts. Don’t know if it’s useful outside of the corridor.
TWC still has an overabundance of “reality” programming, but it seems to have grown an info bar at the bottom of the screen with local weather programming. Still bad, but better. I prefer the secondary digital channel from the local CBS station. It has continuous simulated weather radar and other wx related info about 22 hours a day.
Seems to me that TWC lost track of its audience at some point. TWC viewers for the most part want information and are willing to tolerate some commercials to get weather information. If they were looking for entertainment, they’d be tuned to some other channel.
The shock value of global warming grows weak when the common viewer knows that the climate porn of burning to a crisp that is being pushed hasn’t been true for almost 2 decades. So, the viewers are going elsewhere seeking their “shock and awe” thrills from something else.
I’m not at all sure that the “common viewer” does know that. Everyone I talk to, it’s a surprise.
As the shock value of global warming grows weak they have turned to freezing temps as a sure sign of global warming. Yet these fools thing we have forgotten what they earlier said about snowfalls and warmer winters.
I hope AlGorzeera, the Qatar oil funded TV channel, do buy them up.
Correction
“Yet these fools think we……”
Subject: The Weather Channel 2050 Climate Forecast. How I responded to them a few days back.
I think it is arrogant and wrong.
Let’s look at the current trends in the state of the climate and address each topic.
TOPIC 1 – Hurricane Activity and Sea Level Rise
Hurricane activity on a global basis is trending down (look at the Ace Index) while sea level rise is neutral at best.
TOPIC 2- Heat Waves in Chicago
The number of days of temperatures above 90 (heat waves) has been decreasing over the last several decades. The 1930’s decade being the hottest(most heat waves) and driest for the U.S.A by far. In addition forest fire area coverage (acreage) is currently near record lows and the global temperature trend for 18 years and counting has not risen.
TOPIC 3- Drought in the U.S.A
Nothing in contrast to the 1930’s . Look at the Palmer Drought Index. In addition world wide drought data shows a zero increases in all the various drought categories or levels since 1980 to the present. Also past data clearly shows a direct correlation between the phase of the PDO and drought or lack of drought conditions in the S.W. U.S.A .
TOPIC 4 – Arctic Sea Ice Will Be Gone
Arctic Sea Ice has s been shown through data to be tied to the phase of the AMO. In addition Antarctic Sea Ice is at record highs, while the Arctic Sea Ice decline has ended post 2007.
MY FORECAST GOING FORWARD
Less hurricanes, less tornadoes ,no sea level rises, no mega S.W. U.S.A drought , less heat waves and more cold waves as the global temperature trend going forward will be down.
Here is what the IPCC has to say about mega droughts in the USA west of the Mississippi. The US suffered worse droughts during times of lower co2 in the atmosphere. They really are growing desperate. Other references for US droughts and mega-droughts during the Holocene.
No wonder these guys hate us sceptics.
As a general principle, I avoid supporting propagandists anytime I can. So, when I saw that the Weather Channel was engage in deceit and lying over CAGW I stopped watching them altogether. But, on the other hand, I have hardly watched any TV over the last 15 years so I guess they will not miss me much. If the wife did not watch TV (she listens to the Jazz channel mostly), I would get rid of cable outright.
I get my news on sites like this one.
We got rid of cable over a year ago – we don’t miss it.
On the other hand, I thought somebody could make good money creating a weather channel that gives the weather, a history channel that show history shows and a music channel that plays music videos.
DirecTV channel 351 is Weather Nation. A 24/7 weather-only channel.
Oops, 361.
To “On the other hand…”
So true! (and so sadly funny)
what a concept! Why we could have a Discovery Channel that features programs about important scientific discoveries, or a News Channel featuring actual news, or a public broadcasting channel showing truth-based items of interest to the public. If this gets started there’s no telling where it could go.
We just got rid of cable completely as well.
Amazed at how quiet the house has become without the loud ads and loud political arguments.
Also missing are the silly TV shows of no interest to anyone around here; programming I am forced to pay for under the cable TV model of doing things.
I asked the cable TV guy why they couldn’t just allow me to pay for what I want to watch? Well, we just can’t do that. OK, then I won’t pay for something I don’t want. And it was getting expensive.
We now check out movies from the library, for free. These include old TV series we find entertaining. Again, no ads.
I believe we are witnessing the end of cable and satellite TV networks. The model is falling apart because they offer no choice at a very high price. People want internet connections to content producers who actually produce something worth paying for. Wait until the NFL, NBA, and other sports content providers have their own channels on the internet.
I can pay $2.50 for the one game I want to catch.
Or I can just go down to the bar for the occasional football game.
How long do you think a restaurant would last with menus following the cable TV model?
Let’s see…
Meal one:
Two drinks.
Appetizer (very expensive one.)
Large lobster salad.
Huge meal.
Huge desert.
No choice.
“Could I just have a small salad and iced tea?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Our produce providers will not provide produce unless we also get pies, cakes, steaks, lobster, etc.”
“OK I’ll just go home.”
What Weather Channel has done is fail to provide what the audience wants. They really don’t want propaganda, they want the local weather. Even those who believe the propaganda. When my wife observes my reaction to the Weather Channel, she worries about my blood pressure.
“Why do you watch it?”
Good question. Now we have the answer.
Weather Underground.
Just facts please.
My life’s work is in ruins. My heart aches.
Sorry John. I still appreciate your forecasts and honesty here in SD. I remember you and your wife? had a cart at the West Student Commissary at SDSU when I was going to school there in the 90s, you still there?
maybe you should buy it back for 2 cents on the dollar and fix it. (or hire it fixed).
Keep up the good fight, John. You’re a hero to many of us…
I feel for you! As an Atlanta resident, I once took pride in TWC. I turned it off for good a couple of months ago when I saw a prime time show claiming there was a correlation between tornados and bigfoot and UFO sitings! How sad!
“My life’s work is in ruins. My heart aches.”
I join you in the heartache and pain. But it is TWC that is in ruins, not you, who made it great. Thanks for all the good work!
John, it has to be tough to watch this crap. I used to love the Weather Channel particularly when we moved to Colorado over 20 years ago and had to stay on the alert. I don’t know what they think they are doing. It’s funny to watch to a degree but the joke is getting old. I haven’t looked at the WC for weather, or anything else, in years. Hey like the guy said above, buy them back when they go tits up, get back in the saddle, and make it what it should be. I am sure there are some young guns out there who would follow your lead.
I hold you in the highest regards for being brave and speaking truth Mr. Coleman.
It pretty sad when other do that to you, come up with a winning formula, and someone always knows better. The scifi channel suffered the same fate I think when it statred showing, was it wrestling… oh and cancelled startgate universe! You can cut cost, but only so far that the product quality doesn’t suffer, and no more.
For what its worth, if you want to start over I could lay a killer concept on you!
I feel for you john. I applied for my first job after graduation from The University of Michigan in 1981, at TWC, when you guys were getting everything together but was told you only wanted meteorologists with experience.
It worked out great because you hired Dale Dackus, who had been working in Cincinnati at WLWT and “Weather Scene” and they hired me to replace Dale.
In 1985(you were gone then I think), when I was at WEHT, TWC offered me a job doing the midnight shift and I decided to stay here in Indiana for my wife/family.
Ended up being a good choice but in the 1980s into the 90s, it was at the top of my list for best jobs……..working with so many other meteorologists and sharing info
John, it wasn’t in vain. I loved the Weather Channel in the early days. It was innovative and informative and featured real meteorologists and great forecasting. Then some execuitive decided the viewers weren’t sticky enough with just weather and they went full tilt into infotainment instead. Nowadays, it’s infotainment mixed with Heidi Cullen style propaganda, which is even worse.
The last straw for me was proably 15 years ago when I was trying to time a trip north and needed to see the forecast on a storm moving into the southeast. Unfortunately, the Weather Channel was running some show with P. Allen Smith bleating about holiday greenery or some such and after an hour or so, I gave up. It has been well over a decade since I watched TWC other than when I was stuck in a hotel room or in passing in an interstate welcome center. I’m always amazed that it’s still on. Lots of far better online alternatives these days.
John, you are an Icon, and your good work is you. So please enjoy the breeze, and do not let the wof dampen you spirit. (wof = wall of fog for those not familiar with a John Coleman weather forecast.
Metaphorically CAGW is certainly a wall of fog over science.
John, I’m sure it does pain you to see what’s become of the Weather Channel. I’ve watched you since I was a kid. So, your “life’s work” lives in many of us here, John! I remember your forecasts along with your great sense of humor. You’ve done so much for so many, John. Thank you!
John, your life’s work is thriving and growing right here. Do you think all of these people would be on this site if it hadn’t been for you? You made people aware of the world around them–and we are now changing that world. Bear up, we are winning. TWC is losing, as is Climate Central and RealClimate. Like we all do, look at the numbers!
Cheer up John. My 12 year old knows who John Coleman is, he runs his own weather station in our back yard, and he knows the Global Warming theories are total crap. Surely, that counts for something.
Can you be specific? Here is one very specific climate problem that I have. It concerns the warm “bump” of global temperature they all show from 1940 to 1945 which is purely imaginary. What really happened was a catastrophic temperature drop in 1940 just as World War II was getting under way. It is simply not mentioned anywhere. It is quite likely that you have never heard of the battle of Suomissalmi that was fought in the winter of 1940 at minus 40 degrees Celsius. That was in the Finnish Winter War when Russia attacked Finland after making a pact with Hitler. In this battle the Finns completely destroyed two Russian divisions that were attempting to cut Finland in two, captured their tanks and ammunition too. All official temperature curves show this period as a global warm peak. Or, has anyone wondered how it was possible for German tank engines to freeze during the battle in front of Moscow? These facts are well documented in history books but they fly in the face of so-called climate “science” we.are asked to believe. It is true that the warm peak is shown to be followed by steep cooling but the climate charts have it all wrong: their cooling happens after 1945 when the war was over. These so-called “scientists” are even more clueless than you can believe because now they blame that cooling on aerosols from war production which actually followed the real thing.
No. What you did was of value. What you still do is of value.
When TWC had your name on it, it was of value. Your name is no longer on it.
Your legacy is what you did and do, not what others have done with what you did.
Isn’t it about time we stopped talking about “the Pause” and started talking about “the Cessation” ?
To call it a “pause” requires unwaivering faith in the models, depite their continued failure!
or a very long timeline. Someday it will be hotter.
I prefer “Unforeseen Cessation”. More accurate, IMHO.
Actually I’m in favour of calling it ‘The Peak’. It’s short, catchy, and makes the message very clear. Thoughts?
How much are the other TV channels down over the last three years?
There is this new thing called the Internet that provides new competition.
Exactly. I haven’t watched TWC in years, but I do visit their webpage several times a day for local weather.
Like ESPN’s score ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen, the Weather Channel is losing to the internet.
IIRC, the ratings are expressed in % of all viewers actually watching something, so if all stations fall due to overall fewer viewers, the % will not change for each. The 20% value here seems to indicate market share; IOW, their slice got smaller, while (supposedly) the pie itself (market) got smaller.
Yup, now one can get their forecast instantly via mobile device, whereas 20 years ago Local on the 8’s was a great service. The internet killed that model and TWC had to adjust in some way. If they were showing weather maps the last 3 years, their ratings would have declined anyway. Probably more, but we can’t know that for sure.
Last year, I had to “overnight” in a motel near Indianapolis, Indiana. I sure coulda used a weather forecast that night, I had already had to dig my van out of soft snow and needed to learn if more was on the way before morning. So, of course the Weather Channel, dependable as always, had an all-night “Freaks of Nature” marathon. Not a break for local weather all night. Not on the 8s like they used to do, not at the top or the bottom of the hour, not any. Just “Freaks of Nature” all night long. In the morning, one of the local stations finally came on with a local forecast. TWC was useless as a screen-door on a submarine all night long.
Now, the funny thing about it is that about this time, TWC was having a problem with Dish Network, which stopped carrying their programming. TWC warned us repeatedly that Dish was endangering us by not carrying their up-to-the-minute weather forecasts. Uh…… riiiiiggggghhhhhht. I’m sure missing “Freaks of Nature” endangered everybody who had Dish Network. For the rest of us– if we wanted up-to-the-minute forecasts, we had to go somewhere else because TWC simply wasn’t doing that.
About that night: As it happens, it didn’t snow any more that night, and the roads, though still atrocious, at least didn’t get any worse. I was able to make the delivery I was scheduled to make on time.
Weather? There’s Weather Nation. A bit rough and looks like a work in progress, but at least it is what it is … weather.
As for TWC … a better option would be Syfy.
For news these days i follow only the accredited Agency feeds, Al Jazeera and Russia Today PLUS a few trustworthy blogs that have stood the test of time and rational thinking, such as this one.
For the weather I look outside at the sky and consult my trustworthy thermometer, marine barometer and bit of rope – in unabashed Will Rogers style.
Not for nothing, but hasn’t TV viewership (especially pay cable and satellite TV) been dropping for the past few years? There’s plenty of competition for eyeballs from Internet based options, like Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, etc. And on the weather info front, there are almost too many ‘net based options to count.
Anyone believe the weather channel will even be around by 2050?
TWC will be in a significantly different format or gone by 2017. A weather channel devoted to actual weather will fill the void TWC has created by trying to become the MTV of weather/climate.
Well MTV hasn’t played much music for quite a while, so a weather network without weather is right inline.
What a morbid fantasy, their forecast from the future 2050, an insult to even the average Joe out there.
The best part of weather channel is the page on the website where you can see the current surface weather map. Careful of the forecast pages, however.
Typical warmists. They keep piling on the alarmism even though it plainly doesn’t work, and actually turns people off. Anyone in the mood for throwing up should take a gander at the global warming blog over at AccuWeather…Stupefyingly mindless.
If I owned TWC, I would turn it into a bastion of skepticism. I’m virtually certain ratings would improve. Current ownership just can’t see it.
To reply to my own comment, all they have to do it compare traffic on the skeptical Internet blogs with the likes of the ludicrous Skeptical Science. Propaganda is nothing if not boring.
Maybe there’s an angel investor out there who could give John Coleman the money to buy it back, that would be poetic justice 🙂
Very difficult to give any credibility to an organization that prattles on about “Extreme Weather”,
Force of nature and endless propaganda, yet can’t produce an accurate 3rd day forecast.
I keep wondering as I change the channel, has any of these paid actors ever been outside?
Out in a real storm?
I mean really, wetting ones self over blowing rain or snow in a North American winter…weak, pathetically weak and their apparent contempt for the intelligence of the viewer seems to have no limit.
Who do they see as their market?
Persons who have never left the integrated Apartment tower/Mall?
People should just get their weather info off internet sites now.
Every time I turn on the Weather Channel they won’t run the weather. Kinda makes them useless…
Too many irrelevant programs with too much propagandizing.
I like the way they artificially aged Ban-Ki Moon to his 2050 looks.
What’s the rating success on cable? Fox. Why? Well, blonds with big knockers sure didn’t hurt.
Knockers? I haven’t heard that since they became hooters! LOL
Expat, what makes you associate Ban Ki-Moon with boobs? The two o’s in his name?
Is he Emperor of the World by then?
( I didn’t watch it. I couldn’t watch it.)
TWC was a real weather resource, John Coleman an inspiration.
I hope it gets taken over by some common-sense enterprise.
That channel needs to get back to its roots… beautiful young women giving weather reports. Now that was a recipe for success.
I turned off after seeing the Jim’s trousers were wet to his crotch before cutting over to him but only just above his knees after the cutover (at 0:53). Continuity, anyone?
Also, how come they had not been building levee banks or other structures to stop the flooding as the sea level rise would have occurred gradually over 50 years rather than from one year to the next . Did they not notice this 10, 20 or 30 years ago?
The fool that calls them an idiot is no drongo
Exactly, look how low that flooding was , I’m sure that technological marvel “a pile of dirt” along the coastline would have kept his undies unsoiled.
TWC has really tanked, but they are no TLC!!!
I used to like the weather channel. I would have it as background music. One of the great things about it was that you could see the weather coverage. Now, not so much.
I think their new show “Weather forecasts post sky-falling” is so awful that I cannot watch it long enough to be appalled at the propaganda aspect of it, if any. At least I like the fat guys show, except for the sap-fest last 3 minutes of every show.
Next it will be “Weather forecasts for bridezilla”. Watch and learn.
Dont even joke about ALgore Jazerra buying it.
I stopped watching TWC years ago – everything I need to know about the weather is online without the whole layer of political & social commentary that their obsession with CAGW brings. Not surprised at all that their ratings are dropping as most weather junkies I know are also skeptics …. I guess they are just trying to appeal to those without any knowledge base or analytical skills
Never underestimate the intelligence of your audience.
A quite subtle shift seems to be underway in amongst the climate skeptic blogs and commenters.
A year or so ago the climate alarmist propaganda appeared to be overwhelming and so utterly pervasive that the climate warming / climate change skeptics had cause to think that they might never get their message about the total lack of evidence of any significant global warming let alone any of the claimed catastrophic consequences of such warming, across to the public at large.
What a difference a couple of years make plus Nature’s refusal to bow to the climate alarmists and their models makes in attitudes amongst the skeptics and now amongst the public as the increasing erosion of the heavily propagandized belief in the catastrophic consequences of any supposed anthropogenically created warming of the Planet slowly but at an ever increasing pace, recedes in the public’s consciousness.
The now accelerating fall in the alarmist’s public standings and believability can be put down to two things.
One is the relentless exposure by the skeptic bloggers and commenters of the utter inanity and total lack of any sense of reality or evidence for in the predictions and prophecies now emanating from so much of what claims to be some sort of supposed climate science, This reinforces the perception that climate science promoters have descended into some sort of shaman / witch doctor like pathological fixation with their own agenda and ideology allied with the belief in their own undoubted powers of prophecy and prediction of the future events arising from a catastrophic anthropogenic warming of the planet.
Time has shown that those climate predicting shamans and witch doctors otherwise known as climate scientists, have about the same level of success in their prophecies and predictions as those witch doctors and shamans of more primitive times.
This has now given the skeptics an opening to publicly reveal via the skeptic blogs, the increasingly repetitive and ongoing exposure of the stupidity of so many of these past and failed predictions.
Plus the ever more embarrassing and heavily publicised by the skeptic bloggers, the resultant increasing numbers of back downs and blatant coverups and goal post shifting by the alarmist believers to try and cover for their own stupidity and arrogance in first making such hubris laden and subsequently blatantly wrong predictions and claims in the first place.
The second point is the increasingly marked, almost subtle encouragement, by the skeptics for the continuation of the blatantly over the top, extremist propaganda about the dangers of global warming / climate change and the alarmists linking of such supposed dangerous climate change to common everyday events.
Something the most of the public, reinforced by the barracking of skeptic bloggers and commenters, can see through as totally irrational and ultimately becoming ever more irritable when repeated often enough which the alarmists obligingly are continuing very co-operatively to do with ever greater extremist and far out predictions and claims.
All now carefully stoked and helped along by the skeptic bloggers and commenters.
Thus giving the skeptics further ammunition to take down and expose to an even greater extent the inanities surrounding the ever more extremist irrational claims of the ideologically motivated believers in anthropogenic climate change
A set of points that over the last months the media is slowly starting to take up and in a few cases actively expose which in turn is reinforcing the very many deep down and increasing doubts that large sections of the public have about so much of the catastrophic warming claims as it becomes blatantly obvious that there are no visible or perceivable consequences arising from the global warming that is seen to affect themselves personally or their surrounds and their living conditions nor are likely to in the foreseeable future.
We are finally starting to see and hear the death rattles of the global warming / climate change cult.
Don’t dismiss the realty faced by the hoi polloi. When the temps are -20C, you’re scraping rock-hard ice off your car (praying that the car will start), and some moron is blathering about global warming, you only think two things: global warming my arse, and, I wish there was global warming.
The average global temp (if such a thing has any meaning) may still be warmer than previous years, but many heavily populated areas are experiencing colder weather. That will change the perception faster than anything else.
One more cold winter in the US, and I think judges will have a really hard time agreeing with the EPA’s agenda. They have friends and family, too, and are hearing them say you have to be nuts to believe global warming is real or that a little more warming would be bad. They, too, will be subject to brown-outs when power is limited, as well as skyrocketing power bills.
Suppose this pause in warming lasts 11,000 years? Is it still a pause?
Yes, I noticed this trend a few years ago. Too much barely-weather-related programming and not enough weather. This was especially galling during prime-time, when nobody else was covering the weather. Here’s a great idea, nobody else is reporting or forecasting the weather during these hours, so let’s not either!. Seriously, how about some counter-programming?
There’s also issues with the business model. I can get all the weather I want whenever I want online at any time. If I have a phone signal, I can get weather.
Do the climate kooks not realize the self-inflicted irony? Using phonied up weather reports on so-called global warming makes the rest of their weather reports less, not more, credible. Climate obsession ultimately destroys those infected by it. I hope that Weather Channel goes in even more for reporting on their phony crisis. A new channel actually committed to reporting weather in accurate credible ways will eventually take their place.
We have DirecTV, and I watch Weather Nation, when I want to see what’s going on, or go on the internet. A few months ago, I was watching TWC at night, and they had one of the goofiest shows ever — about what would happen if a tornado hit Washington, DC, or the White House. But then, I guess rapidly rising hot air in that area could cause a tornado. For ” mjmsprt40″, who needed a weather forecast from his hotel in Indianapolis, if you have a DirecTv remote, one of the buttons on the remote brings up the forecast immediately (don’t know how accurate it is).
I can’t remember the name of TWC’s resident hurricane expert, but think he’s almost been put out of a job these past few years.
Must’ve been pretty boring I must say. It’s been pretty boring in Oz too, except the Northwest. Last year there were hardly any cyclone watches. On the tornado thing, doesn’t a tornado need relativly clear air to spin up – that is hot flat ground. It seems to me that spinning up a tornado in a highrise urban environment is practically impossible… Anthony?
I wonder if in 1974 the “Weather in 2014” would feature a blizzard in the middle of summer.
At the hotel I was staying for a while, they had Weather Nation, but still had the program names from the Weather Channel (from Direct TV with their earlier conflict).
So I saw “Two Fat Guys in the Woods” in the listings. I knew it was not an error, at least not the usual kind of error. Perhaps it is an experiment to see how dumb their audience is. Apparently not so much that they don’t switch the channel. (Think frogs jumping out of slowly heating water).
I once described TWC as “Religious programming from the first church of GAIA, some Tru-TV rejects, some human interest rescue or help in floods, tornadoes, or whatever stories and an occasional weather forecast (mainly on the 8s)”. I was originally exaggerating on Tru-TV rejects when I originally wrote that. They managed to turn exaggeration into action.
The back story here is more important and is being missed. This is a WMO sponsored series of adverts. WMO is a UN organization, and with UNEP co-sponsor of IPCC.
TWC is glad to get paid to lend their ‘stars’ to the ads.
All a leadin to UNFCCC 2015 innParis, which will likely fail worse than Copenhagen.
These are just UN paid informercials hyping the upcoming NY meeting, which OBummer will attend but not the leaders of China or India. By themselves, I’m 2013 they were responsible for 34% of global CO2 emissions. North America, EU, Japan, and Aus/NZ were responsible all together for 29%.
Expect a crescendo of such stuff, including more bad papers, until after Paris fails. At that point, the CAGW fever will have broken. Early signs include the number of climate science ‘rats’ now abandoning their sinking ship.
I think the founder of the weather channel says it best. He even gives a shout out to this website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P5RW0Tmp-U
Just boycott their trash.
Everything NBC touches gets corrupted. Weather is becoming an afterthought on TWC.
If a record heat wave in Chicago is currently considered to be just weather – not climate change, then why isn’t it just considered to be weather in the 2050 forecast? Oh I forgot, record cold is just weather; record heat is climate change. /sarc off
Maybe Al Jazerra?
Or Al Jazeera.
In any case, Cantore needn’t wet his pants for real as he will surely have a weather gig somewhere.
The local stations in Oklahoma City have better weather coverage during severe weather. Three stations send up helicopters to track the storms, there are maps in the corners of the screens and they will take over programming when it gets really bad. In recent years, TWC just broadcasts the local stations coverage during tornado season.
Since I am on ATT U-Verse, I don’t even get the local weather on the eights – it’s the same general regional info that you get in hotels. So, it’s worthless for local info.
The state and the universities support the Oklahoma Mesonet which is a statewide network of weather monitoring stations. I know a lot of people who just check the Mesonet for weather conditions.
Information from the Oklahoma Mesonet is helpful in may ways, including frequent updates of soil temperatures, which is a great aid for Spring planting. A Mesonet station is within 1 mile of my home, so weather information is at least, close to correct.
Central Oklahoma weather forecasting is supported by the most sophisticated weather radars and forecast modeling systems on the planet, as a survival response to the area’s proclivity for severe weather.
Another ‘cherry picked’ data stream:
“Bloomberg reports that ratings are down 20% over three years…”
Many if not most of us stopped watching TWC a decade or so ago shortly after NBC purchased TWC. I would think the decline in viewership has been consistent over the years and the last three years are just the mid-slope in their ratings plummet.
John Coleman:
Your life’s work is not in ruins!
Perhaps one physical venue that your talents and knowledge brought to fruition is being run into the ground by bean counting climate kool-aid charlatans, but your life’s work lives on. Someone will revive the science and a weather channel focusing on weather science again.
“The Weather Channel is losing viewers to global warming…”
—
It’s pretty bad when an imaginary event like global warming is getting more viewers than you are.
The Weather Channel seems a very different beast in the 20-teens than the cable service I use to view in hotel rooms after and before a flight to another city during the 1990s. I would posit, that is a bad thing.
For the Weather Channel et al. it seems the ruse of ‘Climate Warming’ ‘Global Warming’ ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’ ‘Anthropocene Era’ have gone to the heads of the current staff as the news paper report of the ‘Klondike Gold Rush’ were to the residents of Seattle and San Francisco of the day.
The ‘Klondike Gold Rush’ was just a media frenzy of the day, and little gold or riches to be had, least by the ‘miners, for a heart of gold’.
Sad.
The big 3 (ABC, NBC, CBS) should be arrested for stalking. Fed up with their crummy programming, viewers find channels/ networks that have the programs they want to watch. In turn, the big 3 stalk the viewers, note what channels/ programming they are watching and then they make their move and buy the network\ channel. Before you can say what just happened, they force the viewers to watch the same crap programs and format they ran from. When the viewers get fed up and go elsewhere again, the big 3 try and unload the heap of garbage they created on anyone foolish enough to buy it. It’s got to be a quick sale, they have to stalk all those viewers that have left and buy what ever channels/ networks they are watching and force them to watch the crap they are running from at the big 3!
The WC is runing too many program that are not weather related. Many times at the Eights I can not see my local radar picture and its too green with poor color. I do not like the changes. Every weather event is played up to look like a Disaster, when it is not!~
Few people (and no one I know) considers being sermonized to as entertainment or educational.
And that’s what they’ve all become; Preachers of the Gospel of Al Gore.
Divinity student that he was, it’s natural for him to run propaganda like a church.
The Weather Channel will not be around in 2050.
It is even money on whether the networks will either.
I agree, it’s highly doubtful that any of the networks as we know them will exist. Most likely something completely new will be replacing them. Certainly on-demand internet driven weather is going to be dominant over weather channels. Netflix is on the right path, so huge money will soon be jumping in on that bandwagon. The old guard simply don’t have enough money to buy in.
There has been 22 years of warming in the 74 years since 1940, when does the “warming” become the pause in global cooling?
In my opinion, TWC is the main reason why pay-tv services in general are losing their memberships.
The History channel showing shows about the future, 2nd.
I have an antenna so the wife can still watch the crud that’s being spewed.
Yep, I used to be able to run TWC as background while reading.
I used to be glued to the weather channel during hurricanes, but maybe that was when John Coleman was there…
Nothing more entertaining than watching forecasts of fake heat waves while the actual weather is about earliest recorded snows and below average temps for most of the US. It looked silly.
Good, concise comment. Hope you don’t mind my stealing it and posting it on the TWC site!
Feel free but I doubt it will change many minds over there. Thanks for the compliment!
Ok…so Jim, standing in his fake water, is a hotty. But rather light on brain cells. Fun to look at but not much for intelligent conversation. I could say a lot more but dare not.
Tsk, tsk. Perhaps you are working to change WUWT into a HBO style website? : ) PS: I’ve been enjoying your posts for years, but I’m running the “Jim is a hotty” comment past my daughters before I’ll accept your premise. To me he looks like a guy who can’t hold his water.
For women, It’s all about looks.
“He beats his wife.”
“Yeah, but what a looker”
Rob, that is the most idiotic thing I have ever read on this blog. Way worse than climate hysteria.
a. smith:
Thanks for the video by John Coleman on the CAGW scam. Wish I could get everyone in this country to watch. it.
The day he passes on will be a very sad day for all of us at WUWT. I will mourn greatly when that day comes.
Click “watch on youtube” on that WMO 2050 video to see the comments. Sorry, thou shalt not comment! End of Debate!
With apologies to two very fine TV meteorologists, Anthony and John, and with no disrespect to the fine work and services many in the TV weather business do, I recommend using: http://forecast.weather.gov/ It’s a National Weather Service website. Set it for your area code or city and you get a pretty accurate forecast. Need the forecast for a city you are traveling to? Just type in the city’s name. I suppose all the TV fancy graphs, up-to-the-minute pictures, and human interest stories are well and good, but honestly do these things really improve your ability to prepare for the weather? The only issue I have with the NWS site is their % chance forecast is always low. Their 10% chance is really more like a 30% chance; their 20% is more like a 50% chance; and anything over 30% you should definitely count on it happening.
Sometimes the desserts are just indeed.
Brett will probably have to move on as well me thinks
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/climatechange
I used to watch the Weather Channel when you could actually get current weather on it. Now I recommend Weather Nation and Weather Underground which you can access for free on web based TV. In fact, I recommend internet television and broadcast television period. Satellite and cable TV have become a wasteland, at least they were a couple years ago when I dumped them.
Reblogged this on gottadobetterthanthis and commented:
I am of the opinion that persuasion is an illusion. Once people make up their minds, they won’t change for reason, data, or arguments (rhetoric). The opinion is fixed until pain forces change. [Instead of pain, an incentive and opportunity might arise that provides cause for change.]
As Weather Channel continues to fail, the pain of monetary loss will start forcing the change. Enough pain like this, and the media just might swing round and either drop this particular variety of alarmism, or it might even start deriding it. They will likely do whatever helps ratings.
Regardless, I don’t expect to ever hear apologies about global warming alarmism, but I do expect to quit hearing the hype. It will run its course. The global warming alarm will continue to be sounded by the true believers. It may never stop. Think of the recent Harold Camping. There are still believers in his failed alarmism, even though he completely disavowed, stating that he was wrong. He reportedly asserted that to predict such dates must ultimately be sinful. Yet people believe. Global warming alarmism is with us until Manhattan Island is under ice sheets again.
Probably losing viewers to Smart phones. TV seems to be losing to internet forms of communication and TWX would be more vulnerable to an app.
TWC
I suspect with the growth of smartphones people just rely on apps these days (weather being one of the inbuilt things in Apple iOS and Google Now for example). Ironically these are powered by TWC so I do wonder if the channel will become no more (on TV) but may live on in driving data on apps/online.
Why go to the effort of turning on your TV and waiting for local on the 8s when you can just view the current and forecast weather straight from your phones home-screen
Have not tuned into the weather channel for decades. When I was a budding meteorologist back in the 1980s I did, but today I find no use for it…especially their politics….UGH!!
I was one of the original OCM’s (On-Camera Meteorologists) back in the spring of 1982. Used to be proud of my affiliation with TWC. That ceased to be the case about 10 years ago, when they went into the AGW tank. I watch less than 10 minutes per year now…mostly during hurricane threats to see how badly other networks are kicking their arse. TWC has been an embarrassment for a long time now, plain and simple.
As a weather nerd and WW [whatevernumber] fan, I used to watch just two channels. You guessed it, and the military channel. John Coleman must cringe every time the Weather Channel program is on. At least the military channel still has its bearings and I still have wonderful memories of a peaceful time with a loved one watching that channel from sun up to sun down.
Yeah Pam, but you notice they had to change the channel’s name to American Heros Channel.
The word “military” in a channel’s name is offensive, un-PC, & might incite violence… /sarc
I watched from the beginning back in the ’80’s when I lived in Jersey. It was like home turning it on after I moved to Virginia. TWC is the reason (I’m sure) my household wasn’t chosen by Nielsen. I filled out the log file faithfully, sent it in. But, you see, TWC was my default channel.and took up most of my viewing time. Really. I knew all the backdrops they used for graphics, and I certainly remember it felt like they were owned by Michelin 🙂 Also the music. And in the morning with my first cup of java I’d cringe and yell at the TV “Oh, please don’t smile, Marny!”.
My complaints echo those mentioned above. I’ll just add that I also used to watch TWC all night because I love staying up all night and at least it was LIVE. The other channels are all reruns. Not anymore.
I do get weather info from the web and on my Kindle HDX but my TV is on the kitchen table and that’s where I eat and the only place I allow myself to have a smoke. I”m not giving up cable yet, I use it more for scheduling my daily life which it’s great for and for watching stuff live.
Thanks, John Coleman for what you gave us. Too bad someone else had to ruin it.
And TWC’s self promotion commercials:
The lady hanging sideways in a storm,
The antenna that elevated through snow from a hidden radio.
Reminds me of some commercials a Philadelphia radio station, WMMR, played in the late sixties; One advised the best antenna length for WMMR reception after which the voice said “for those with windshield imbedded antennas” followed by the sound of breaking glass.
Yeah, TWC used to have class; now TWC is just disgusting.
The only thing I watched on TWC with any regularity was the local radar. Now I get that from the NWS site radar.weather.gov – without the Kool-Aid.
Haven’t seen the Weather Channel in years – don’t watch TV anymore since I think it is probably a wonderful source of subliminal programming since it went digital. I do use the weather.com daily to see their “prediction” of the today’s weather. I stay on it only long enough to skim through the 10 day forecast since I am so fed up with the nonsensical sidebar videos they use, and the latest and greatest “so and so went to someplace to have fun but got killed” videos. Sort of like going on cnn.com and looking at all the disaster videos people give them with their cell phone cameras. “watch swimmer attacked by a great white while his wife watches on.” Good stuff. If the same garbage fills up the hours on the weather channel, no wonder people are not bothering to watch it.
Same here. It got to the point that I knew more about weather than The Weather Channel did. Which really isn’t saying much about me. But think what it says about The Weather Channel!!!!
Whoever manages their Facebook postings drunk the alarmist coolaid. It’s so bad it’s funny!
Just glanced at the view counter here. The Weather Channel supposedly had 214,000 viewers per day in 2013 and was declining. WUWT passed 200000000 about 4 AM PDT on the 10th, about 6.6 days ago. going by the current count you’re averaging about 185000 views/day since then. If we could get everyone to hit the reload button a couple more times a day you could be really kicking their butts.