Weather Channel

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Already the hurricane hysteria industry is in full force, not even waiting for the official start of the season. The story is that we're in for a busy season this year. Yeah, right. I moved to Punta Gorda just in time for Hurricane Charley in August 2004. My family was watching it on The Weather Channel when it changed its mind. Originally, it was a benign Category 2 storm headed to Tampa. Then it was headed to Fort Myers. Then it turned right at my house and quickly upgraded to a Category 4. We got maybe 30 minutes' notice.

Quote: "I watch the Weather Channel all the time. I like it because the lake in my backyard was dry and now the bass are biting."-- Expos manager Felipe Alou, who lives in nearby West Palm Beach, Fla., after the team's game in Miami was rained outIt's a fact: The Astros are 15-18 against the NL Central, matching their loss total for last season, when they went 38-18 against division opponents.Who's hot: The Brewers' Jeromy Burnitz has seven homers in his past 12 games.Who's not: The Cubs, who have lost 16 of 21, have allowed double figures in runs in eight of their past 15 games.

ST. CROIX RIVER, Maine -- Stephen Cobb has one eye on the sky as he leans forward in his canoe and dips his paddle into the warm currents that twist deep into this state's vast wilderness.As a bald eagle glides by and loons call in the distance, this 50-year-old river guide is worrying about the onset of a summer storm."That's called a sun dog," he says, pointing to the ring of haze around the late afternoon sun. "That means there's moisture in the upper atmosphere, and we can expect some rain tomorrow."

AS REQUIRED by law of all senior citizens in this country, my mother is obsessed with the weather.Apparently, it's her job to track every major storm heading toward the East Coast.And once she's determined all pertinent data (intensity, direction, likelihood for destruction of property and loss of human life, etc.), it's her responsibility to call everyone she knows to warn them the storm is coming.From her bunker in her kitchen, a steaming mug of tea in front of her and The Weather Channel blaring in the background, she speed-dials acquaintances, friends and relatives.

The East Coast heat wave has made life miserable for everyone, especially major-league groundskeepers. Paul Zwaska, head groundskeeper for the Orioles, is in charge of ensuring that the field is moist and playable, climate notwithstanding. The Sun's Jason LaCanfora spoke with Zwaska see how he does it.Q: What measures do you take when the temperature nears 100?A: We use a lot of water to cool down the field. Unfortunately, we also have to spray quite a few chemicals to prevent fungus.Q: Is the fungus a problem because of the humidity?

You might live with one. You certainly know one. Your husband, son, wife or friend might be a weather junkie. Winter storm or fair skies, this sub-culture of weather buffs is glued to the cable guardian angel named the Weather Channel."

The days are getting shorter. The sun rises later and later. My almanac says it will come up at exactly 7:11 this morning. From my bedroom window, I search the horizon, and as soon as I see the bright tip of the sun I glance at my wrist watch.7:10:58It's a digital watch, so it keeps the exact time. I know it's the exact time because I check it every Monday morning by calling the telephone company's toll-free time number.''Good morning. At the tone, the time will be seven-eleven. Exactly.''Bong.

A cold front is bearing down on the Northeast like the 82nd Airborne on red alert. Unless something is done about it, it will be here by sunrise. But of course, nothing can be done about it. That is the tragedy, the pathos, the great ineluctable drama of our inconstant climate.And that drama, in turn, is perhaps why we watch the Weather Channel.For more than 10 years, the Weather Channel has been chronicling the vagaries of the jet stream, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, through rain and sleet and snow, heat and humidity and drought.

The TV Repairman (Special Edition):Surely, it had to be good news, the envelope fairly screamed it."Important Subscriber Information Inside," it informed."

One look at its anchor team lets you know that Channel 45 (WBFF) is going to take a different tack when it puts on its 10 o'clock news.In a city where the memory of years of ratings domination by gray-haired Jerry Turner is still affecting hiring and firing decisions, Fox-affiliated Channel 45 is going with a cast that looks like a new version of "The Rookies."The oldest member of the station's weekday and weekend anchor teams, who were introduced to the press yesterday, is 35. The two main co-anchors are 30 and 33. The two weather people are 25 and 28. There won't be too many gray hairs on the station's still-to-be-unveiled set.According to news director Mark Pimentel, who does have a few gray hairs though he's just 34, it's not a matter of age, but of mind-set.

FRANK BATTEN SR., 82 News executive created Weather Channel Frank Batten Sr., who built a communications empire that spanned newspapers and cable television and created The Weather Channel, died Thursday in Norfolk, Va., after a prolonged illness. Mr. Batten was the retired chairman of privately held Landmark Communications and a former chairman of the board of the Associated Press. A visionary executive who earned a reputation for spotting media trends, Mr. Batten was at the forefront of development of cable television in the 1960s.

It was pouring when Charles Grene got home to Westminster on Sunday. He dialed the weather phone; the relative humidity was 79 percent. The Weather Channel said it was 81 percent. He's puzzled: "I thought that when it is raining the relative humidity was 100 percent." It is, Grasshopper, at least up where the water vapor is condensing. But the air is often drier at the surface, around our instruments. Raindrops can evaporate as they fall, producing veil-like clouds called "virga."

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Already the hurricane hysteria industry is in full force, not even waiting for the official start of the season. The story is that we're in for a busy season this year. Yeah, right. I moved to Punta Gorda just in time for Hurricane Charley in August 2004. My family was watching it on The Weather Channel when it changed its mind. Originally, it was a benign Category 2 storm headed to Tampa. Then it was headed to Fort Myers. Then it turned right at my house and quickly upgraded to a Category 4. We got maybe 30 minutes' notice.

Retired meteorologist Fred "Light Dusting" Davis, 73, a longtime Pasadena resident who headed the National Weather Service's bureau at what is now Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport for 26 years, no longer worries about occluded fronts, winter weather advisories, hurricanes or summer droughts. He says a sense of humor is an essential ingredient to have, especially when you're a weather forecaster. Davis is still being kidded about the National Weather Service's "light dusting" prediction of Feb. 18, 1979, when 24 inches of snow blanketed the area.

Paula from Pikesville watches the Weather Channel way too much. She notices stuff like the local air-quality descriptor at the bottom of the screen. After a day and a half of rain recently, the adjective was still "moderate." So Paula asks: "Shouldn't the rain have washed all the pollution out?" Logic and my experts say yes. But the Weather Channel folks say they're measuring particulate pollution. It could rise after a storm as dirty new air blows in. Besides, they say, "Moderate isn't much worse than low."

Did you know?-- The heat index is the temperature the body feels when heat and humidity are combined. - The Weather Channel

If you want your MTV, it won't be on Comcast's "Family Tier" package of wholesome fare that is coming to Maryland and the cable company's other markets. Trying to head off proposals requiring them to sell their products one at a time, as in a tapas restaurant, rather than in a package, as on a Carnival Cruise, cable companies are trying to seem accommodating. And it looks as if they'll be successful - politically, if not commercially. Comcast's family package may not be pounced on by subscribers, especially since it doesn't seem to contain ESPN, the popular sports network.

If you want to know what frightens senior citizens more than anything else in this country, it's not complex Medicare rules or rising prescription costs or pension problems. It's the Weather Channel. The Weather Channel's new logo is: "Bringing Weather to Life." But it really should be: "Proudly Scaring the Hell out of People Since 1982." The fact is, we've become a nation fixated on the weather. And no demographic group is more fixated than senior citizens. Apparently, if you're 65 or older, you're required by law to watch the Weather Channel at least four hours a day. So now, besides being terrified by the weather forecast for their own area, seniors can be terrified by the weather forecast for everywhere else in the country, too. This is why senior citizens should not be allowed to watch the Weather Channel.

Starting today, Marylanders who simply must know whether it will rain or shine will be able to find out by tuning in to a 24-hour digital weather channel provided by WBAL-TV, Channel 11, Baltimore's NBC affiliate. Available to Comcast subscribers on digital cable Channel 208, the 11 Insta-Weather Plus service will feature continuous local weather updates and five-day forecasts, plus regional and national reports provided by NBC, the station's partner in the venture. In addition, the station's regular meteorologists - Tom Tasselmyer, John Collins, Neal Estano and Domenica Davis - will provide live and taped updates on the new service.

One vehicle kept gaining traction the more it snowed last week: WeatherBug. Made in Maryland, it isn't a hot, new sport utility vehicle or even truly a bug, although it resides in a place where bad bugs occasionally do, in a computer. It is the name of one of the hottest sources of weather information on the Internet and one of the most popular tools on the Web. Gaithersburg-based WeatherBug has become the second-most-visited source of weather information on the Web, behind the site of cable television's The Weather Channel, according to Internet analysts comScore Networks Inc. and Nielsen Net Ratings.