follow the money..
Things like this are easy to figure out if you follow the money. the poster above who got all chapped because the forecast was "wrong" and screwed up his plans; or the contractor who stripped a roof based on a clear forecast and was foiled... aren't paying for a service as a customer.
Commercial TV stations have advertisers as their customers.. the Storm Central stuff, snowpocalypse, and all that hype - right or wrong - brings views and thus advertiser dollars. The meteorologists do not answer to the viewer...
Sure, there is some linkage as a constantly erroneous forecast could result in loss of viewership and thus ad revenue.. but this notion that the viewer is a "paying customer" and "entitled" to an accurate forecast is nonsense. That is what is wrong with the "if i ran my business that way i'd have no customers" argument.. or the similar "i wouldn't get paid at my job if i was always wrong" argument...
The fact is: they don't work for you! TV weatherpersons answer to a program director who tracks advertisment revenue. Station ownership will change anything/everything to maximize ratings. Indeed, if a non-hyped, mundane, conservative forecast became the desire of the viewership.. it would start happening tonight!
The National Weather Service, Military Weather forecasting, government weather offices are entirely different.. they have different objectives and I think their forecasts - and the way they are presented - reflect that.
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