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weather warning

The great thing about being back in America, is that we’re on all the same page about a lot of things. I feel comfortable going into stores and asking for help and thankfully, there’s literally hundreds of shampoos to choose from, because really, they’re all that different.

Really.

Sure we disagree about politics, religion, and Lou Dobbs (Can someone just say to him, “Okay. We got your point.”) But one thing that we all agree on is how important, how vital, how absolutely critical it is to know the weather forecast.

On every morning news show, the weatherperson is there, breathlessly reporting each droplet that might fall from the sky, that there’s a chance of a storm coming this weekend, or possibly to expect the possibility of wet weather.

And if that’s not enough, there’s constant play-by-play recounts throughout the day, at five minute intervals, via news-breaking worthy weather alerts with heart-pumping names like Weather Watch or Action Weather, and the most fearsome of them all—First Warning Weather.

I guess it’s nice in the newsroom, to know you’ve gotten there first with the weather report. But does it really matter?

I don’t know. I don’t have time to think about it.

They say there’s a chance that it might rain, and I gotta go get ready for it. Somehow.



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27 comments

    • Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy

    Yes, I agree – all the crazy, flashing graphics and tickers make watching the news really stress-inducing! Extra points if that weather channel had some lightning bolts streaking across the screen. :)

    • Adrienne

    David, I live in Austin but I am currently in southern India. I forgot about you being in Austin right now and imagine my surprise when this slow internet cafe connection beamed up a weather graphic I am familiar with!! Speaking of, the only morning weathergirl you should watch is Susie on KEYE. She’s a kindred chocolate spirit!

    from Adrienne, in Pondicherry, India

    • Mark

    Maybe they could spice it up with a weather update that includes the related “big storm tornado” cheesecake recipe or “possibly hailstorm” triffle?

    Now we could have a set of food related sponsors for the weather like the rest of the news being sponsored by all those prescription drugs we never knew we needed, but really must ask our doctors about.

    At least it would be more entertaining to sit through ;)

    • Christina

    Ok, I get it if a tornado might head right through my kitchen (literally ripping my Kitchen Aid from my arms), but the constant yapping about rain clouds … I can just look out the window. I did see a very useful weather thingy online the other day: The Frizz Index. It’s supposed to indicate if you’re gonna get a bad hair day. How have I lived without this piece of information?

    And yes, Lou Dobbs … I’ve been in the States for six years now and he has talked about te same thing every night. I get it.

    • Amy

    Fun last night. Thanks!

    • LP

    I’m gonna disagree with a previous commenter. It’s all about Jim Spencer and First Warning Weather. Jim Spencer has been around forever and he’s the best.

    • David

    Oddly, when I got to the airport this morning, my flight was delayed 10 minutes. When I was joking around w/ the ticket agent, she said, “With this weather, you’re lucky it’s just 10 minutes.”

    I looked outside and it was slightly overcast.

    Just slightly.

    • caroline

    I don’t have TV anymore, but I have to admit I kinda miss the Weather Channel. For some reason it was soothing to have it playing in the background.

    • stacy

    HAHA – that makes me laugh. We do love our weather, ESPECIALLY when extreme storms are expected. when there is the possibility of bad weather, well you should be prepared for a whole day of weather talkin’. I get so excited about it. lol It took my Italian husband awhile to get used to that.

    If you were headed to Dallas – well I’m sure we welcomed you with some fun severe storms. gotta love a Texas spring!

    • Polly

    So true! And also, how about the difference between the French and American TV meteorologists?

    I love how the weather newscasters in France (almost all female) are so no-nonsense yet still so va-va-va-voom.

    • Mary

    Give us a break here, David. I got dressed in the dark (power out due to storms), had to move piles of branches out of the driveway before I could get the car out, and drove through streets piled with branches, people’s garbage trolleys, blown-off chimney caps and bricks…and it’s just April. If you lived in Texas you might not make fun of our weather reports. My family is scattered all over the state, and we like to know what to expect.

    • Eric

    Ditto what LP said, Jim Spencer on 24 lurves the weather–he gets sooooo incredibly excited about explaining the science of meteorology. He’s my favorite weather elf. Austin’s in Texas’ “flash flood alley” and America’s “tornado alley,” so maybe we’re also in “extreme local weather channel alley,” too.

    • Val

    The last time i was in London, I was watching the weather and was absolutely confounded by the forecast of “more weatherly weather”. That and “cooler, fresher air” just weren’t nearly descriptive enough for my American trained weather instincts.

    • Vanessa

    When we were in Paris last month we loved watching the weather…but I am a self-confessed weather geek…give me a surface map and the barametric pressure and damn the dopler…oops I got carried away.

    David, I want to thank you for all the great advice you’ve doled out on eating in Paris. I think I got all but 3 of your top 10 and alas…I still mourn the missed chocolate marshmallow…but oh, everything we ate was divine.

    • carole

    Come on you all know the words:

    And all over the world
    Strangers
    Talk only about the weather.
    All over the world
    It’s the same

    • June

    The weather is with us so why not talk about it. I agree Lou Dobbs needs a new topic

    • timhenk

    My sentiments exactly. If you ever find yourself in Milwaukee and there’s the slightest chance of precipitation (or Brett Favre retiting) the local NBC station will literally tell you about it nonstop from 6 am to 6 pm.

    • Kirby

    David, I went to your Central Market class tonight you’re exactly the charmer I knew you’d be — Anyone who hasn’t been to one of your classes is missing out. The food was all great though honestly, your recipes for macaroons and chocolate orbit cake on this site blow all those recipes out of the water. I wanted to interject when you said you were going to Sonny Bryan’s (“he’s going to a GD chain!!!??) for dinner but I’ll let it pass. Thanks for a great night! Can’t wait to have you and your wooshing charm back! PS Prunes are good but some date recipes would be great, also.

    • mimi

    funny, clicking through the tv, and there was louie mouthing about you know what, again. but besides that, i have a slight addiction to the weather channel. ah, mike bettes, what a cutie. somehow it’s that combo of useless and probably incorrect weather “predictions” with the sound of late night pseudo porn music that just gets me going ;)

    • Linda

    I’m sure you’ve heard that the weather channel is MTV for older Americans. I don’t know why but I am fascinated by weather and I used to watch it all of the time when I lived in the States. Now I check out the weather via the Internet but it just doesn’t seem the same. By the way, it is raining in France right now.

    • Judith in Umbria

    Official announcement: I have fallen over the edge into blatant fandom. Odd how the chocolate was never quite enough.

    • Sandra

    We can all look out the window and it seems that we know what it is currently doing. But as Mark Twain once said, ” if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and watch it change”. I’m sure that in Texas storm clouds move through quickly enough, but here in Boston, they can linger and drag in cold Canadian weather that never seems to want to leave New England this spring–it’s April and still feels like winter….but we had a nice taste of warmth yesterday. I know the weather channels and forecasts are good for something sometime someplace–that is if something big is coming like the Texas twisters or New England blizzards, otherwise there’s no excitement–let’s get on to something else.
    And the suggestion for something spicy included is a good idea……

    • Carrie

    That is so funny,
    I lived out of the country for 3 years (lived in Italy) and seeing the weather now is ever so comforting to me. Makes me feel I am really home…that and commercials (we couldn’t get commercials on the channels we watched.) We do have an obsession with weather though, you are right..that and smellies (shampoos, deoderants, perfumes etc..) God Bless America :)

    • Leslie

    Ha! I never really thought about it before but those names really ARE heart-pumping. Just reading “Action Weather” made my blood pressure go up a tick like “OMG! It’s weather!! And it’s coming!!”

    • Heidi

    When you don’t get much rain (Texas) then when you do, it’s flooding with a chance of tornadoes (Texas in April), you learn to watch the weather.

    • Linda H

    That nasty Texas weather came up here (Illinois) and now it’s gonna SNOW and FREEZE for the next three nights all over my budding apricot trees, which means no home-made apricot jam this year. Crap.

    • Frances

    Just be real thankful you are not in my household! My son who has autism, is addicted (amoungst the rest of his classmates who are ASD) to the weather channel! For 16 years the weather channel has been on in the house for at least 1 (sometimes 4 depending on the stress level)hour a day. Its a phenomenon that even John Hopkins Medical Institutions have done trial research on to see what the common interest for kids with autism are. So at least the weather channel will always have the angels watching them. That should count for something!

A

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