Weather Channel

The Weather Channel's plans announced Tuesday to assign names to winter storms in the same way as hurricanes may have stirred a debate among weather forecasters. AccuWeather.com has released a statement criticizing the move. Henry Margusity, AccuWeather's lead severe weather forecaster, had poked some holes in the plan on Twitter on Tuesday, but the statement released Wednesday comes from the weather service's founder and president. “In unilaterally deciding to name winter storms, The Weather Channel has confused media spin with science and public safety and is doing a disservice to the field of meteorology and public service,” Joel N. Myers said in the statement.  “We have explored this issue for 20 years,” he continued, “and have found that this is not good science and importantly will actually mislead the public.

The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch across Central Maryland for Wednesday, warning of a risk of wildfire spread. With relative humidity down around 25 percent, gusty winds up to 30 mph and dry brush and twigs, the advisory is in effect from Wednesday morning through Wednesday evening. "OPEN BURNING OF ANY TYPE IS CONSIDERED VERY HAZARDOUS THIS TIME OF  YEAR," an earlier special statement cautioned. "ACCIDENTAL ESCAPED DEBRIS BURNS ARE THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF  WILDFIRES.

The massive snowstorm that blanketed Baltimore and much of the northeast in February 2010 garnered the name "Snowmageddon" from social media users suffering from extreme cabin fever. This winter, how about storms named Brutus, Iago, Helen or even Q? Those are some of the names on a list the Weather Channel released Tuesday to assign to snow and ice storms during winter 2012-2013. The channel created the list to "better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events," according to a post on its website . Weather Channel forecasters plan to name systems no more than three days before they are expected to impact major urban areas.

I'm not keen on anthropomorphizing nature, a tendency best left to nineteenth-century poets: Shelley, Wordsworth, that element.  So I grit my teeth and endure the National Weather Service's practice of naming tropical storms and hurricanes. It's a well-established tradition, and at least the weather service has started using male as well as female names, and the Associated Press Stylebook  has long since frowned on calling storms and ships "she. "* But the Weather Channel's whim to name winter storms, including the one buffeting the Northeast today, strikes me as a crass and inept attempt to gin up publicity for itself while whipping up public excitement over the weather.

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.

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.

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."

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

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."

Clearview CATV Inc. has increased its basic rate to $15.95. Clearview's basic rate offers viewers 32 channels, including Turner Network Television (TNT), which was added Jan. 4.Clearview also has upgraded The Weather Channel to include Baltimore area radar coverage and more detailed local weather information on a 24-hour basis.

Yesterday, I sent this message to the newsroom staff: We will not be using the word “Frankenstorm” in coverage of Hurricane Sandy, because the term trivializes a serious and potentially deadly event. It's acceptable in direct quotes, but even there we shouldn't overdo it. In doing so, we were following the lead of Phil Blanchard at Testy Copy Editors, who had posted that advice on Facebook, and CNN, which had adopted the same policy. The advisory to the staff was not a flat ban, as you see from the mention of quotes, and Frankenstorm is a word that people are using, and using as an SEO term to find information.

The Weather Channel's plans announced Tuesday to assign names to winter storms in the same way as hurricanes may have stirred a debate among weather forecasters. AccuWeather.com has released a statement criticizing the move. Henry Margusity, AccuWeather's lead severe weather forecaster, had poked some holes in the plan on Twitter on Tuesday, but the statement released Wednesday comes from the weather service's founder and president. “In unilaterally deciding to name winter storms, The Weather Channel has confused media spin with science and public safety and is doing a disservice to the field of meteorology and public service,” Joel N. Myers said in the statement.  “We have explored this issue for 20 years,” he continued, “and have found that this is not good science and importantly will actually mislead the public.

The massive snowstorm that blanketed Baltimore and much of the northeast in February 2010 garnered the name "Snowmageddon" from social media users suffering from extreme cabin fever. This winter, how about storms named Brutus, Iago, Helen or even Q? Those are some of the names on a list the Weather Channel released Tuesday to assign to snow and ice storms during winter 2012-2013. The channel created the list to "better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events," according to a post on its website . Weather Channel forecasters plan to name systems no more than three days before they are expected to impact major urban areas.

McDaniel College may be tucked away in Westminster but boy does the school know how to party. Don't take our word for it -- this is coming directly from Southern Living. The magazine just placed McDaniel on its list of the country's best tailgating schools. And don't take it only from Southern Living. The Weather Channel also ranked McDaniel a heady No. 6 on its best tailgating list. (Who knew the Weather Channel was paying attention to tailgates?) Tailgating is serious business in schools across the country.

Destructive and devastating tornadoes have grabbed the weather headlines so far this year, with the 416 tornadoes observed through April 9 about one-fourth more than normal. But does the apparent spike in severe weather, also including hail and damaging thunderstorms, mean added risk for Maryland? Not according to the National Weather Service and AccuWeather.com severe weather blogger and meteorologist Henry Margusity. Granted, last week Maryland marked "Severe Storms Awareness Week" to get residents mindful of severe storm preparation.

Opening Day is a week away, and little has changed in AccuWeather's long-range forecast -- the Orioles could be meeting the Minnesota Twins under drizzly skies. But the outlook isn't unanimous. Next Friday is still a few days outside the National Weather Service's forecasts, but AccuWeather is calling for a high of 61 with "a few showers" in the area. That's slightly less wet than the forecast looked 10 days out. Weather Underground predicts a zero percent chance of precipitation and a high of 59. The Weather Channel, meanwhile, is also calling for clear skies, but it is predicting a high of 69 degrees.

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."

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.

A major swath of the eastern U.S. continues to rack up all-time records for mid-March heat, but not Maryland and other parts of the Piedmont Plateau. Despite a stretch of 80-degree weather last week, the Baltimore region came within a few degrees of missing records. Washington airports, meanwhile, narrowly set new marks. More temperatures approaching 80 are on the way, but records in the low to mid-80s are unlikely to be threatened. Seventy cities from Minnesota to Maine to Florida are expected to surpass or flirt with temperature records Wednesday, according to the Weather Channel . In Baltimore, temperatures are expected to creep up from the low 70s today to the upper 70s by Friday, with lows in the mid 50s. For a record, highs would have to reach the mid-80s and lows the mid-60s.

The clerks at the Days Inn of Westminster know that every Friday night before a McDaniel College home football game, a bearish guy with a thick New York accent will appropriate their refrigerator and fill it with 150 cubes of yellow and green Jell-O — spiked with a little something extra. "Everyone knows that if you want a Jell-O shot, you come to the camouflage tent at the 50-yard line," says a beaming Joe Timpanaro, whose son plays wide receiver for the Green Terror (the team colors correspond with dad's Jell-O)