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International Weather Coverage

Split from The Weather Thread (May 2014)

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RK
Rkolsen

I can see this being useful in Dallas and possibly Chicago, but LA and San Fran.... not a chance! Seems silly. It rarely rain in SoCal and when it does it hardly ever turns severe, seems a silly waste. I would have thought maybe WTVJ-Miami would have made more sense. But these radar/chaser trucks seem silly outside Tornado/Dixie Alley. Apparently the are due to launch during the Olympics. And this is because NBC is banking on high viewership during the games to promo the heck outta theses things. Unfortunately its silly because tornado season is spring. Glaring ratings stunt.

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/nbc-owned-stations-unveil-stormranger-mobile-radar-trucks/175419


WTVJ already has a radar of their own and Florida is pretty flat so there is no major obstructions to the radar.
EL
elmarko
Ehhh, "tornado season" being in spring isn't really as true as people say. There are spikes at many locations at different points during the year.

Although yeah, May is probably the worst.
MO
Mouseboy33
Spring is by far the worst and is there is spike in the autumn which effects Dixie Alley.
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EL
elmarko
Aye, I don't think it's really a good idea to do national counts like that though. The seasons vary depending on location.

8 days later

RK
Rkolsen
It has been mentioned here on the forum that NBC has launched a fleet of three mobile X-band radars dubbed Storm Ranger (Station Number) and plans on adding more once they see how the fleet currently works out.





Apparently NBC is investing heavily on stationary radars. Their Chicago stations WMAQ and Telemundo's WSNS have replaced their radar system to an dual polarity S-Band radar with an ERP of 10.4 Gigawatts.







Now KNBC is airing promo saying that they are building a network of THREE new Doppler radars for the Los Angeles region. Based on the promo itmappears they will all be online by October. I'm a bit puzzled as to the need for three radars considering the worst weather Los Angeles gets are rain storms and they seem few and far between. KNBC does have a large coverage area with multiple microclimates ranging from coastal plains, valleys, mountain ranges and deserts.



Of course all these stations will be relying on the National Weather Service's network of radars across the country and the TDWR radars located at major airports to augment their own. The key advantage is the stations ability to control their own radars allowing them to control the scan area and the speed of receiving data. The NWS' radars can update images every five minutes when they are operating in precipitation mode which takes scans at 14 different elevations and when it's in clear air mode it takes 10 minutes for five different elevations.

Weather is considered the biggest draw to local news which is why stations usually have a weather update in every block (in the mornings a lot of stations have brief summaries every ten minutes where the forecast and sometimes traffic are dubbed as "on the station #") and a comprehensive forecast every half hour. It's also why during severe weather such as blizzards and hurricanes they go all out and preempt regular programming and often commercials. Such coverage can last multiple days focusing on the preparations, the actual storm as it hits the region and its aftermath.
Last edited by Rkolsen on 11 August 2016 5:59am
MO
Mouseboy33
I can see NBC heavily investing in weather tools in Chicago its by the largest city in the center of the country and a far greater population and a greater severe weather potential. But 3 radars for LA? Thats pushing it. KFOR TV-4 in Oklahoma City operates 2 of their own Dopplers which they also supplement with NWS Radars.


KFOR History feature the legendary Meteorologist Harry Volkman
WW
WW Update
An interesting weather forecast from Channel 3 in Thailand:

DB
dbl
Very....flamboyant
WW
WW Update
An amazing sight seen live on Los Angeles TV yesterday:

NY
NYTV
An interesting weather forecast from Channel 3 in Thailand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5xY0q0_tNY

It seems they're using the Fox Affiliate Theme.

14 days later

RK
Rkolsen
One of NBC's Storm Rangers from Philadelphia is getting her first test tracking tropical storm Hermine. Steve Sosna (from NBC New York and occasionally MSNBC) was doing live hits for the NBC Owned Stations last night - all while tweaking/calibrating the radars parameters. They were in Elizabeth City, NC yesterday and I believe working their way northward with the storm. The truck was accompanied by WRC's (NBC Washington) Storm Team 4x4 - which is a branded SUV with a mobile weather station and several cameras so they can go live while driving.

Like I said earlier weather is a big money maker in the US.









You can see a feed of the trucks radar output by downloading the stations apps,which I don't know if they are geoblocked, by selecting the Storm Ranger layer on the radar map. I was succesful in viewing data from WNBC, WRC and WCAU from this storm. Just search for NBC Washington, NBC Philadelphia, NBC New York etc. on the App Store.

Previously the most severe weather one of these trucks have seen was the one based at KNBC which was used to track smoke from a wildfire. Because of the technology KNBC was able to determine where the smoke was and where it's going.

One more Tweer:



Last edited by Rkolsen on 3 September 2016 12:49pm - 3 times in total

32 days later

MO
Mouseboy33
I was very impressed with WPLG 10 Miami coverage of Hurricane Matthew's approach toward South Florida. They have their own reporters in Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and they had 2 reporters live in Bermuda. Dr Max Mayfield formerly of National Hurricance Center and Chief Meteorologist Betty Davis all on their 10pm newscast. Of course being Miami its was all a bit flashy dashy, but i thought they did a fantastic job having their own reporters fan out across the region to report a potentially disastrous story home for many of its viewers. A good example of why Miami is such a different tv market to most other cities. But also has that Latin flashy dashy look.

http://www.local10.com/live/watch-the-local-10-news

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