Anyone who relies on The Weather Channel for accurate forecasting is sadly mislead. Ever since John Hope died, their hurricane forecasting in particular has dropped off badly. You could take a wild guess based on no information, and you're likely to be more accurate than they are.
There is a reason this storm was overhyped, and it seems like nobody realizes what it was. The facts are so simple. They were thinking this storm would be dealing a big blow to New York City. Had it not been for that, Obama would not have pulled his FEMA stunt, the coverage wouldn't have been 24 hours on every major network, etc. How pathetic is it that if you go to so called major news sources like CNN, BBC, USA Today, etc. this morning, you would never have known there was a hurricane that hit the south. 100% of their coverage was about the impact on NYC. Then when you tried to look up pictures of the aftermath, 99% of pictures were taken in Times Square.
They wanted so badly for Irene to cause destruction in NYC, because the news event it would have created would be exactly what they needed to have sensational journalism for months to come. Even if it had been a cat 2 when it hit NYC, they would've overhyped it to the point you would never have heard Katrina mentioned on television the rest of your life. They wanted that story, that is the only reason they were so hyped on Irene.
Jim Cantore is a perfect example. Anyone that knows anything about him or The Weather Channel knows him for one thing - he was always the guy with the balls to be in the eye of the storm, no matter how bad it was going to be. For years, we all sat amazed as we watched him broadcasting live during the peak of Hugo, Andrew, Katrina, etc. and it made for great tv. The bigger and badder the hurricane, the more we awaited Jim's arrival. But it was what he did for hurricane Irene that proves the point I have been making in this post. When Irene was expected to strengthen to a cat 4 as it moved toward the North Carolina coast, Jim Cantore was on tv plenty. The odd thing? He was broadcasting from Atlantic City, then NYC. Two places where Irene was never more of a minor to slightly above minor threat. That caught my attention immediately, because it was well known from the start that her effects up there would be minimal compared to the devastation she was expected to inflict upon the Carolina coast. It was at that exact moment on Wednesday morning that I knew the whole thing was a complete load of oversensationalized bull****.
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