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.