TV Weather Forecasts

Apparently local meteorologists bobble the forecast quite often. As an air quality meteorologist, I sympathize very much. After all (casting blame elsewhere) the dearth of temperature soundings over the nearby Pacific Ocean practically guarantees bad forecasts (although this weakness can be mitigated by carefully reading the satellite pictures).

In New Mexico, my Dad had an explanation for the bad forecasts. "Marc, they lie," as he used to say. "No, they don't," I used to reply, "they use the very best information they can get their hands on, it's just sometimes not enough." He responded, "liars, liars, liars!"

The New Mexico solution, as elsewhere, is to put a good gladhander up on the tube. KOAT-TV had Howard Morgan doing the weather for years, and KOB-TV pulled science whiz-bang George Fischbeck off of educational KNME-TV to do their weather for awhile, until George went to LA and became a local star there. These days, Joe Diaz rules KOAT-TV, because it's easier to stomach the lies, or whatever they are, from an amiable person named Diaz, than for any other particular reason.