There's Still False Storm Hype Out There, Despite Tranquil Forecast

This image on the National Weather Service home page was
not at all colorful this morning. That's a good thing. Lots
of color on this map means lots of warnings and 
weather dangers. Seems mostly clear for 
Thanksgiving travel today! 

 Gawd, I  hate clickbait. 

That's when you put out some sensational or shocking news out there on social media to garner clicks, eyeballs and presumably income, even though the actual news is much less exciting. 

With weather forecasts, it's fine to say some long range computer models suggest something noteworthy, like a big storm, IF you qualify it somehow in the headlines and prominently in the story that the storm is not set in stone. 

As of a week ago, some computer models a week ago were suggesting the possibility of a very disruptive storm in the United States Thanksgiving week.

As better data came in, it became clear by Friday that the early computer models were a bit overwrought. No major storm would form. Just the typical November ick in spot. 

Still, as of Friday and even Saturday, major players like AccuWeather hyped the potential storm in their headlines, which I think pushed it too far.  At least AccuWeather backed down somewhat with the headlines when it became clear Thanksgiving travel would not get screwed up by any kind of big storm. 

Still, as of this morning, AccuWeather still had a link to their story on Twitter, posted just yesterday, headlined, "Brewing storm to threaten disruptions at worst possible time."

To be clear, there might be periods this week where some corners of the nation might have kind of "meh" weather that's not great, there is no storm to speak of that's brewing.  

As of this morning, the Weather Channel still had a headline up headlined "A Couple Of Rough Travel Days Ahead."

With the volume of travelers, and staff shortages, combined with not-at-all-extreme rain showers and gusty winds in the Northeast Monday, flight delays and a few cancelations are inevitable, but this isn't Armageddon, and weather will only be a bit player in any chaos. 

NBC News was still tweeting on Friday the headline, "Thanksgiving week storm gearing up to affect busiest airports in the nation."   Sorry, no it wasn't. 

There are YouTube videos up posted just yesterday, some correctly saying no big storms are on the horizon, others still hyping.

 To pat myself on the back a little bit, my headline for potential Thanksgiving week storminess that I posted last week said. "Still Question Marks For Next Week."

My Friday morning headline was, "We Can Forget About That Thanksgiving Storm, (I Think!)"

The "I think" was to cover my ass in case there was an unlikely surprise shift in the forecast. So far the only shift I see is turning an already mediocre expected cold front even more lame. 

I'm not a meteorologist, even though I've had training in the field. I'm just a weather enthusiast who relies on outfits like the National Weather Service to get my information. Sometimes I get things wrong.  Happens to everyone. I apologize, correct or explain myself and move on. We're all humans. Nobody gets it right all the time. 

I also happen to like, even love clicks in my direction on social media.  But it's irresponsible for anyone to exaggerate things to cause false alarms, all in the effort to gain attention.

I know that's the way of the world these days. Social media clicks are the new personal validation and also money making enterprise. But this old fart still rebels against all that. 

So sue me already.