Viewer E-Mails & More Storms

I've been doing weather on TV for almost 10 years (that can't be true, can it?) One thing I had to learn early in this business is to let things that people say roll off your back. Everyone in TV gets a nasty email or gets told a snide remark in public. There are angry phone calls, too. In the weather world, nothing brings out the complaints like interrupting a television program for severe weather. You wouldn't believe some of the things that people say or write. A lot of times they do not leave their name. From time to time, I share some of these e-mails with you, if only to illustrate how self-centered some people can be. Thankfully, these folks are a vocal minority and in no way do they represent the opinion of the vast majority of viewers. Unfortunately, most people that appreciate the weather coverage don't call or e-mail. Facebook and Twitter have helped to even the playing field though. On Tuesday night, I had over 150 comments or posts left on my personal Facebook page, thanking me for my weather coverage. There were a few negative e-mails, too. Here is one that arrived in my inbox from a woman named Cynthia in Brookhaven.

"I can understand why weather alerts are necessary, however the Biggest Loser was virtually ruined by/with the repetitive, frequent interruptions!  Instead of using the space at the bottom of the screen for a continual update,  Eric Law seemed to time his constant interruptive updates with the weigh-ins which is what the viewer (me) is eagerly waiting to see!  Other stations do a better job of allowing viewers to see the main points of a show.  Surely once a viewer sees and hears that hail, rain, wind or whatever is headed their way,  why do the rest of us have to be subjected to a blow-by-blow account every few minutes???  P-L-E-A-S-E  don’t keep ruining our shows with this type of stuff!!!!"

I think we are in all agreement that a weigh-in on a reality TV show is clearly more important than life-threatening weather. What was I thinking? [sarcasm]

Seriously. I just don't get it.

I record a lot of shows on DVR. I can't count the times I've been watching a Law & Order episode on DVR and get to near the end of the show, then boom! A weather cut-in. "Great," I think "I have no idea if he was found guilty or not guilty." But, you know what I do? I log on to nbc.com and I watch the end of the show. No harm done.

But we don't only get it from that side. Check out these comments left on the First Alert Weather Fan Page, also from late Tuesday night.

In the case that Darlene was referencing, there was no warning on the storms. There was very heavy rain, some lightning, and perhaps some 40mph wind gusts and some pea size hail. There were never any reports of gusty winds or hail though, but it was possible based on radar data. There was a Tornado Watch in effect.

There was no need to cut-in. The crawl, which was updated several times, got the point across. I was on Facebook and Twitter providing updates as well.

The moral of the all of this is no matter what we do, we are not going to make people happy. WLBT has a severe weather policy. I follow that policy very closely. There are a lot of factors to weigh when doing severe weather coverage. We're not only watching storms, we're talking to the National Weather Service, sending storm reports to the newsroom, calling our weather watchers, and sending out updates on wlbt.com, Facebook, and Twitter. There is a lot that goes on and a lot of keep up with. I think there is always room to improve, so feedback from viewers can be good. But, hateful e-mails and threatening phone calls do not accomplish anything.

We'll probably have more e-mails next week. Looking ahead to Monday and Tuesday, storms will be returning and severe weather seems likely.

The map above (click to enlarge) shows some high instability heading up into south Mississippi Monday afternoon. This is no guarantee of storms, but IF storms do develop, they will have some good juice to work with and could get quite strong. I'll be watching this next system closely and will blog an update tomorrow evening.

Eric - elaw@wlbt.com