Do you think weather reporters have become scare-mongers?

I don't think my weathercasters are like that here but I live in South Florida so it only really gets that way when we have a hurricane warning or watch. I am thankful we are not there in "snow country". I've lived in it and I hated it every day there was white stuff on the ground. As far as the weather forecasts, etc. if they bother me too much then I just pop in a dvd and watch that. They can't interrupt my dvd! I hope your weather improves soon. Have a nice day and happy myLotting!!!

Sorry to hear you're in the snowy area of the country. It is beautiful and sunny here and so the weather people are not trying to scare us right now.

That's because 9 out of 10 people don't listen. Then they go out and get in their car (or whatever) and do something stoopid. Then they blame the weather guy for not giving them enough warning. The TV/radio stations are simply protecting themselves from those idiots who will blame them for the weather when they go out in it and something goes wrong.

Hello my dear dragon. Well they aren't THAT desparete here :) The weather usually comes after the hourly news at the radio, and after tv news on television. I would be annoyed as well if they kept interupting my shows SO often as well, so i can relate to that. I do listen to what the weather guys have to say when i stumble upon them on tv, but mostly i rely on my internet sites for weather, as they are accurate enough for me to use.

Yeah, remember the old days when we had to make a phone call to find out what the weather was going to be like? I always get a chuckle when I see Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel when he's been sent right into "THE STORM". He seems to live for disastrous weather. He's always so hyped up and animated whenver he's sent into a hurricane, flooded areas, whatever the type of storm it may be at the time. I just have to laugh at him. I do understand what you're saying, though. Whenever we have an alert of any kind, even if it's as mild as a winter weather ADVISORY, they have to keep breaking into whatever is on TV to let us know about it... seems like it's every 5 minutes. Okay, bad weather is predicted. That gives us the opportunity to plan ahead and deal with it correctly when it gets here. If it is here, we already know about it. If it never comes, awesome! The only time I don't mind them breaking into a program is when we have a tornado warning. I don't think I'll ever get used to them and they scare the bejeebers out of me. I am prepared as well as one can be, with emergency supplies all neatly stacked up inside the basement bathroom, the one room here with no exterior windows or doors. It's the safest place in the house to be and I would like to be kept informed in case a tornado is heading our way or one has been spotted just forming near us. That would give me enough time to grab my puppies and head downstairs... I hope, anyway. Yeah, they're scare mongers. It's probably the only excitement they get as weather people so they play it to the hilt.

First of all, I would like to be paid like weather reporters for doing so little work! Then yes, you just have to look out your window to see what the weather is like. But obviously in a radio or TV studio they can't do that, so they get it totally wrong. The weather maps are like kindergarden pictures - how many suns can you fit on this map? Remember when they showed isobars? I prefer to listen to the shipping forecast. That is still prepared by experts!

I think they have to fill so many minutes of news and weather and if nothing else is happening, they fall back on the weather. There's only so much you can say about a storm, so it gets old in a hurry, I agree. However, there have been some wicked storms this year, so maybe they're always on the outlook for the "really big one" so they can make national headlines. Who knows... it does get tiresome, though.

They don't do it to scare you. They do it because the majority of the population are a bunch of morons. We just had this in Australia with the flooding. We have the head of the authorities pleading with people on television to not drive through flooded roads and not swim in flooded water. And the little buggers keep doing it. Everyday. the rescue teams have to pull dozen of cars out. You see kids swiming in dangerous water. People die... and we are supposed to mourn for them.

Here in the San Antonio area, it is news anytime the temperature drops below freezing. Should it actually snow, it is big time news. I've lived here 49 years and only remember seeing an accumulation of snow on the ground 3 times. The last time was 1985. Ice is a different matter. Nobody knows how to drive on that. The safest thing is to just shut the city down.

The weather people are just the latest in the news industry to do their best to sensationalize & place importance on their work!!! I've got WeatherBug on my computer & my uneducated guess is as accurate as their educated guess!!! Earlier in the week my favorite weatherman said we were going to receive a dusting at most on Thursday night. Well, Thursday he was promising that we'd have rain followed by 1-3 inches of snow & wake up to roads so slick we wouldn't be able to drive much like our 8 inch storm 2 weeks ago. Then they went on & on about how we have no sand or salt to clear the roads. I went to bed assuming I'd be waking up to a mess. Well, I woke up to sunshine & a beautiful day. I've also noticed they they go to break saying there is snow in our forecast then come back only to learn that the snow is in the mountains over 100 miles away. AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! I used to watch the Weather Channel every day..that is...until they started NOT showing the weather opting to show what "might" happen IF we had the storm of the century. Well, I don't like the news & weather people deciding how I'm to feel, so I've stopped watching BOTH. I now pull up my WeatherBug to look what front is coming in our direction & I go to the local news sites & look over the titles & determine what I feel like reading!!! When I feel they are trying to control my thoughts too much, I just go to another news item!!!! I also hop from news site to news site so I get a balance of opinions!!! I agree that I can just step out my front door onto my porch to see if it's raining or snowing or if it's warm or cold

It's not snowing here so no weather reporters are scaring me. I just hope there won't be any bad weather conditions in the future. That would suck big time.

In a way, maybe since they only get people's interest if there's bad weather coming or on going. But in country, I look at them as jokers since they normally give a prediction of the path of the typhoon and then it turn out that it totally changed course or they tell us that it's going to be a sunny day but it would rain after all. Their jokers since no one believes them anymore.

Yes, sometimes those weather reporters are exaggerating. I have a feeling that they liked it so much if the weather is so bad , because they have something to delve their report to. Though, i must say we have to thank them also. Despite the bad weather, they are there to bring us the worst situations that sometimes endangers their life.

Well, I'd have to say here in the middle of Texas the weathercasters do get a little carried away sometimes. We don't have a whole lot of weather here, it's either hot or cold and pretty mild in between. When there is a chance of ice or snow everybody just goes crazy... constant interuptions of programs plus the little irritating crawl at the bottom of the screen letting us know what a terrible storm is approaching, there could be ICE on the roads!!! there may be SNOW FLURRIES!!! Keep your children home, don't go out if you don't have too. Of course that sends everyone out right away to stock up on milk and bread and TP... just in case, you know. So come morning, when we do see a little drizzle, we are all worked up to a tizzie and nothing to show for it. We really get disappointed that we haven't been snowed in or iced over. But, during the spring and fall when we have the heavy rains and wind and the threat of tornados we are thankful for those same weather people and all they do to keep us informed. I'd be happy to see them interupt every 5 minutes and let me know if that thing is headed my way. We just gotta take the good with the bad ;)

I don't think the weather back then was as bad as it is now, although I do think sometimes they go a bit crazy. I would rather be well informed than be saying, that I did not hear anything.

Reading this and thinking about it, one poster said that some people just do not learn and they have to be told repeatedly what to do to be safe. I guess it is like all the people who do not read the faq section here or pay attention. We keep telling them over and over how to be successful, and they keep on getting deleted.

I think we have become information addicts and they are trying to feed the addiction. If someone was not demanding all this information, I feel that they would not be doing it. There are some people who constantly want to be supported in their belief that weather is getting worse. I however think back to the pioneers and know we do not have those classic blizzards. I think it is our materialism, we have so many more material things to lose in any catastrophe.

When people are pessimistic, they tend to dramatize the negatives and often see just the negatives in things: A pessimist would always see a half-full glass of water as half-empty and emphasize a 30% chances of rain instead of the 70% non-chances in the same situation. You simply have to learn to see things the way that benefits your life and keep going.

Agreed to a point. I live in Minnesota which gets very cold and snowy this time of year. Now with temps geting to -20F and windchills down to near -45F all the news reporters are doing stuff about frozen pipes and destroyed houses due to this. I say, come on, we live here and know what to do to protect our house and selves during these cold snaps. But then again, there are many that need to be told over, and over again these things. So yes and no to the question. HAHAHAHA! None of the reports scare me, they do make me concerned though a lot at times is all. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB!!~

In the northern states (and this year the southern ones, too) winter is the biggest thing the weatherman does all year. He has to spruce it up a bit. That's like in Gulf of Mexico states the weathermen beg for the sight of a hurricane forming. It's their heyday. It's a time they get to feel important. Would you take that away from them?