Hey Robert Szappanos

Do you work at Applebees, Chili's, or O'charley's?

I'm leaning towards Applebees, but I'm not ready to give my final answer.

You ready to spill the beans?

Come on man, Robert is well known as our personal meteorologist. You'll really appreciate him once the bad Spring weather starts and we get up to the minute, highly detailed forecasts.

Yeah, instead of the talking heads of TV with all the BREAKING NEWS ALERTS, we just check in here for our private, normal, level-headed weather forecast. niccceeee.

Yes. with Robert you can get an accurate forecast and information on the best place to get safely predictable food at a huge corporate chain. It's one stop shopping.

Robert's metereology is lightyears ahead of the crap on TV.

Robert's meteorology IS the crap that's on TV. The local weather folks (with the exception of Tom Wills and possibly the guy on WDRB whose name escapes me, but he used to be on the Weather Channel) are, as a rule, NOT truly meteorologists; that is, they do not have degrees in meteorology (undergraduate or graduate) as Robert does. Their educational backgrounds are in broadcast journalism, with some meteorology classes (perhaps) thrown in on the side. Robert could speak to what is required for a TV forecaster to be certified by the NMS or AMS, but my understanding is that those standards are not as rigorous as they once were. These folks do not produce their own forecasts. Rather, the forecasts that are put out by local media weatherpeople come from the National Weather Service (ie, Robert and his co-workers.) The satellite photos, atmospheric data, computer forecast models and everything else that goes into producing a daily weather forecast all come from the NWS. The TV stations take this basic forecast product, dress it up with "ExtemeFutureDopplerCast 6000!" computer graphics, a doppler radar set, and a visually pleasing, authoritative-sounding "meteorologist". Remember, Robert (his fetish for chain restaurants notwithstanding) is in the business of providing accurate information to the public. The TV people are in the business of generating revenue (often by hyping, sometimes by scaring, and occasionally by informing, their viewers) from advertisers. If you want weather information as accurate as the TV stations provide, without the hype, go to http://www.weather.gov and poke around a bit. I know it makes me a tremendous nerd, but I find it fascinating.

OK. And your point is, Lurker? By the way, where is Adrian Baldwin? He's who started this inane thread anyhow. Now we have Shlomo adding to it.

I believe it's in the first sentence.

Man I got to have a cup of coffee before I respond.....

Dear Adrian...You got me...i do work for a Large Corporate Chain....We have Offices located alll across the United States....We provide the same service no matter what location you are at...We have served Billions and Billions.....You can get a full service menu or a quick...Value Meal...menu.....The choice is yours.....We have a web site that has the same look no matter what Office or location you are looking at. The place....The National Weather Service.....

[Robin Garr]

OK. And your point is, Lurker? By the way, where is Adrian Baldwin? He's who started this inane thread anyhow. Now we have Shlomo adding to it.

Actually, the thread - albeit fundamentally a little silly - was pretty civil until you dropped that stink bomb into it, Doogy. What's YOUR point?

That's a pretty sweet response.

And, thank you for the service you provide this forum...

and thank you for the service you provide this forum, i.e. personal weather service

Robert's meteorology IS the crap that's on TV.

I've never seen Robert on TV running around like a mad man screaming about Doppler 12 radar and how we are all going to die a fiery death because the there was a reverse echo on the radar seen in some small town in northern Indiana . . .

and dont forget Street Level forecasting....If people only knew how much of the "STUFF" you see on TV Weather is nothing but FLUFF...It looks cool to the viewer....

[Robin Garr]

I've never seen Robert on TV running around like a mad man screaming about Doppler 12 radar and how we are all going to die a fiery death because the there was a reverse echo on the radar seen in some small town in northern Indiana . . .

True, but that's not what Shlomo is saying. He's just making a fairly valid point: Robert and his colleagues actually use data and forecast weather; they distribute the data, and the TV weather people use it to make their forecasts.

In principle he's right, and he's certainly not bashing Robert, although he may be bashing TV weatherpeople.