Anyone Else Tired of Weathermen ?!?!

[OKCisOK4me]

Seriously. My coworker comes to me today and says "Did you see his forcast last night?! Such a drama queen!!!" Then she goes on to imitate him..."This IS GOING TO BE the largest snowstorm of the year!! Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah". And I was just laughing & agreeing because I did see it and it was ridiculous.

Slowly and progressively the other channels have come around to saying there is a slight chance and I'm talking about the kinda slight chance where you have two invisible pennies between your thumb and pointer finger! And maybe Mike isn't that crazy because Sarah Libby on KOCO's weather blog is forcasting 2-4" here & 4-6" just northwest of the OKC metro area. But at least she states "Keep in mind…this will be tweaked in the days ahead".

I still think it's funny and I do realize they're forecasting for the whole state, but considering the largest concentration of your audience is in the metro area, maybe you should first address that this is hardly going to be a 'SUPER CRAZY DAISEY WEEKEND'. Oh & Loretta will be able to get out of the house because Friday Night In the Big Town will be A-OK (yes, I know that's Gary)!

Don't get me wrong. I think Mike is an awesome individual and he has a common hobby with myself, but sometimes--I take that back, all the time--his weather coverage perturbs me.

[westsidesooner]

lol....funny you should bring this up. I watch Mike Morgan just for those reasons. We gave him the nickname of "chicken little" along time ago. But again thats why I watch him. He does tend to be over dramatic from time to time, but mostly I think he is just excited about weather. Which tends to make him always give the most dramatic and worst-case scenario forecasts. Almost like a kid doing a wishcast. Which again...thats why I watch him....hopeing he's right. That said he's not alone in his thinking for this weekend. Most models tend to paint a very heavy snowfall over NW Oklahoma, coupled with strong winds of 20-40 mph could make for a memorable event. Remember we do get our biggest snows in March. We should be glad its not a severe weather outbreak forecast for Friday, it'd kill my b-ball watching.

One of the snowfall forecast models I've found online predicts 16-20 inches in NW Oklahoma, and 4-6 inches in OKC. Im sure that will change by Friday but I'm to hopeing thier right. Regardless, if we do get snow the roads shouldn't become snowcovered with the soil temp now in the 50's

[OKCisOK4me]

I do realize it's not at all impossible to receive a major snow storm this late in the year. I do remember March 1994 we had 13" of snow here in Oklahoma City. It was so heavy that it didn't make a difference that it was 70 degrees the day before & it only took a few days to melt off as our temps rebounded drastically!

For some parts of the state this could be exactly the same scenario, but I don't see that happening in the OKC area.

And you're right, for some reason I just keep crawling back again, and again, and again, AND AGAIN...lol.

[bombermwc]

I find Gary England to be just as overly dramatic and discounting as Mike Morgan. England's famous line of "I just don't see how you're going to survive if you aren't underground" during the May 3rd tornados was enough to make me never watch him again. That's a big F You Gary. They have become such drama queens in order to make ratings, they leave behind the science of weather to instead be a tv personality. And Gary seems to have some "new evidence" each week about why he alone has the proof that there isn't global warming. Yeah, 9000 year old Gary England is right and the rest of the world is wrong huh?

[rod4soonrs]

If you pay attention to Mike, he will be the most agressive, and dramatic just before he is to be off work, meaning if he is scheduled off for a couple days, the night of his last night to work, he will really put out the worst case scenario, and when it misses, he says boy did we dodge a bullet.

[westsidesooner]

I can't resist: YouTube - KWTV and Gary England Respond to Stewart Spoof I laugh my ass of every time I see this.

[BDP]

soil temp now in the 50's

Just curious, where do you go to look up the soil temp?

[Thunder]

bombermwc, that is a really stupid statement to make! Just bout most people will agree to the "I just don't see how you're going to survive if you aren't underground" and miracously there was few deaths. Again, you need to take a closer look on that day, and yes, there is plenty of videos out there.

I like Mike. He does good with his job and knows just how to push that button to get people on alert and pay attention. Without him, I'm sure there will be more storm-related deaths!

Here is the forecast graphic. Keep in mind, this will be changed several times a day.

[westsidesooner]

Just curious, where do you go to look up the soil temp?

Oklahoma Mesonet

[OKCisOK4me]

I like Mike. He does good with his job and knows just how to push that button to get people on alert and pay attention. Without him, I'm sure there will be more storm-related deaths!

So are you saying if those annoying sirens would just broadcast Mike Morgan's voice instead of that wailing sound that more people would take cover instead of grabbing their camcorders to go outside & get the best action possible?! lol...

[Thunder]

I'm just saying that Mike is always on alert about these things. Rick tend to be more relaxed and Gary is long overdued for his beauty sleep.

I've witnessed Mike's team spotting funnel lowering and eventually touching the ground while Rick is a lil behind to announce it. They all have access to the equipments, so it raises a question on why Rick is more relaxed most of the time while Mike is being serious.

[westsidesooner]

I think all the meteorologist are great when it (the weather) gets serious. They didn't get a career in weather just to get a job. So when it gets rough I know they have their viewers in mind. Obviously they are driven by ratings (most of the time), and their obligation to their station to pull in viewers. Or at least not bore them to death. And I think they all have sighltly different audiences. Mirroring their stations demos. So theres gonna be some drama once in awhile.

[OKCisOK4me]

I think all the meteorologist are great when it (the weather) gets serious. They didn't get a career in weather just to get a job. So when it gets rough I know they have their viewers in mind. Obviously they are driven by ratings (most of the time), and their obligation to their station to pull in viewers. Or at least not bore them to death. And I think they all have sighltly different audiences. Mirroring their stations demos. So theres gonna be some drama once in awhile.

I don't think we'd have to worry about that if we had this guy:

YouTube - THE ORIGINAL COCKROACH VS. WEATHERMAN

[SeinfeldBlock]

I think they're all dramatic. Rick growls in his voice when he gets really excited about the weather. It's all in which drama we prefer. I do have to say though Rick has calmed down a lot over the past few years.

[TaoMaas]

He does tend to be over dramatic from time to time, but mostly I think he is just excited about weather.

Mike's not alone in that. All these guys get excited about severe weather, but some hide it better than others. We used to call it a "weather woody". LOL There are a lot of other tv markets where a meteorologist might make more money, but if severe weather is your thing...this is the big leagues.

[n8ison]

Speaking of a weather woody...This is from a couple weeks ago...

[Jesseda]

gary england is the funniest out of all weather forecasters, i remember he was saying about a year or two ago, when he was at the station on t.v( There has been reports of a small tornado around out by interstate 40 and the turnpike, but the atmosphere is not stable enough to create a tornado, it is probably a gust of high winds or a downdraft, then not one minute later, he gets on and says we have storm tracker that is tracking a rotating storm just east of I-40 and the turnpike reports that it has already touched down, we will have live video of the damage) talk about a major foot in mouth,lol i laughed and laughed about that. Does anybody remember, some of my co-workers still talk about it.

[TaoMaas]

LOL Oops...There's still no substitute for trained observers in the field. That's actually how Gary England got a leg up on everyone else. In the pre-Doppler, pre-microwave live shots, pre-cell phone days, he used to train ham radio operators in how to spot storms because that was about the only instantaneous way to communicate back then, short of stopping and finding a pay phone. It was a tremendous advantage.

[SoonerDave]

I find Gary England to be just as overly dramatic and discounting as Mike Morgan. England's famous line of "I just don't see how you're going to survive if you aren't underground" during the May 3rd tornados was enough to make me never watch him again. That's a big F You Gary. They have become such drama queens in order to make ratings, they leave behind the science of weather to instead be a tv personality. And Gary seems to have some "new evidence" each week about why he alone has the proof that there isn't global warming. Yeah, 9000 year old Gary England is right and the rest of the world is wrong huh?

Amen!!! Gary England was arguably the forerunner of the hysterical "LISTEN TO ME LEST THOU WILL SURELY DIE" shake-rattle-and-terrify meteorologists in OKC. To his credit, I content he all-but invented the genre, if its possible to have a "genre" of hysteria-based meteorologists. Compared to what he was in his early KWTV days, he's practically somnambulent. Most here may not remember that England got his start at radio station KTOK. England's also had his share of, shall we say, "issues" regarding the sourcing of some of the material in his various publications - the most notable of which was just a few years ago when he wrote a blurb for the Oklahoman's weather page, where someone is alleged to have found an unattributed, nearly verbatim excerpt from a different source that had been used in one of England's "mini-columns." He discontinued that column shortly thereafter.

Mike Morgan started in this market at KOCO several years ago, right after (IIRC) Wayne Shattuck departed to return to Florida. Morgan then "disappeared" from KOCO for a few weeks once it had broken that he had been lured away to KFOR..

-sd

[bombermwc]

Today is a perfect example of why i hate weathermen in oklahoma. They can't predict snow to save their life, and without any basis for their conclusions they blab on TV about how bad things are going to be. They don't consider that some people are stupid enough to believe them....including the governor who has declared an emergency in freaking oklahoma county where it's what, raining.

Those stupid decisions force others in various power aspects to make other decisions, like school districts. My students just had a championship event taken away from them because the district cancelled activities for the weekend. That means we can't compete because we can't even carpool together. So 5 months of work goes down the toilet. And what really pisses me off is that they have improved so much in the last 2 weeks that we were really going to surpised people tomorrow. So when I wake up tomorrow and there isn't a foot of snow, i want to be able to go to these weathermen's houses and punch their faces in for being wrong yet again, just like they are every year.

And what's REALLY stupid is, Gary Dumbass England is saying OKC is supposed to get MORE snow that previously expected? Excuse me, but how many of us have been watching the radars all day today and can plainly see the RAIN moving towards OKC....not snow. The snow is staying west of even El Reno and we're not seeing anything here. It doesn't take a freaking rocket scientist to be able to read radar.

[Nermel]

Might as well throw the NWS in Norman in with the over the air meteorologists for screaming about this.

[Millie]

Um... I don't find fault with Gary for anything he said on May 3rd. Then again, I know some people who died because they wouldn't go in their shelters in time...

Unfortunately, sometimes they do have to "over-hype" weather events- it is the only way they can get some people to listen to them. I blame it as much on the cynical and/or holier than thou attitudes of some people who somehow believe that they're above listening to the forecasts and paying attention- thus endangering themselves and also the first responders who eventually have to try to save them.

[jsibelius]

I'm not tired of Mike Morgan, but complaints like these get a bit tiresome. Every time there's bad weather, someone complains about the TV weathermen, and not just here in OKC. But we forget (conveniently or otherwise) that they have to talk about the weather for a large swath of land mass, not just this city. I'm sure people who live out in the sticks wish more attention would be paid to their areas. I know I sure thought so when it was me out in the sticks. We get mad when they break in to talk about a tornado that's nowhere near OKC, but I guarantee the folks in whatever small town it hits are grateful for that coverage. And so am I.

[TaoMaas]

But we forget (conveniently or otherwise) that they have to talk about the weather for a large swath of land mass, not just this city. I'm sure people who live out in the sticks wish more attention would be paid to their areas. I know I sure thought so when it was me out in the sticks. We get mad when they break in to talk about a tornado that's nowhere near OKC, but I guarantee the folks in whatever small town it hits are grateful for that coverage. And so am I.

You're right about this. I was in southern Oklahoma visiting my folks a few years back when reports began coming in about a tornado on the ground nearby. The OKC stations were all over it, but the cable company kept switching away because of the FCC rule against duplicate broadcasting. So we were forced to listen to the Wichita Falls stations who didn't seem to be very interested in anything that was happening north of the Red River. It was pretty frustrating.

[CuatrodeMayo]

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