Weather media in the United States

rdf:langString Weather media in the United States

rdf:langString The weather media in the United States includes coverage of weather and weather forecasting by farmers' almanacs, newspapers, radio, television stations, and the internet. Farmers' Almanacs have taken a stab at forecasting for the following year or so for around two centuries. At first, weather media included reporting on past events, with forecasting playing a role from the late 19th century onward. Weather-related information proliferated to near real-time after the invention of the telegraph. Radio and satellite broadcasts made weather-related communication ever quicker, with the World Wide Web making broadcasting and reporting nearly instantaneous. By the 1990s, sensationalism played a role in large weather coverage. Hyping weather, especially winter weather, has become a major marketing tool in media. One of the biggest angles of weather sensationalism and hype is the winter season in the heavily populated I-95 corridor from Richmond, Virginia to the Tri-state area (New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut). Some scientists have noted that in a region that climatologically has a brief winter and sees infrequent snow ( most cities between Richmond, Virginia and New York City average less than 30 inches of snow annually), there is a non-stop hype of winter weather from late November through March. In contrast, other areas of the United States that average several hundred inches of snow annually (areas in the Great Lakes, Mountain West, upper Midwest), and West Coast receive little coverage. The Weather Channel will often dispatch several "weather reporters" to the I-95 cities to dramatically report that a few inches of snow has fallen.