vortex95

Are you referring to the cold low in Quebec? ECMWF at 90 hr shows the same as the GFS in terms of depth.

7/1/1988. 546 low over NNE. 4" of snow on MWN for its largest summer snowfall on record. 34 for a low at Barre Falls MA this day. And this occurred during one of most brutal summers for heat and drought in the CONUS on record. WxWiz is probably wondering..."I bet there were tons of low-topped tstms this day w/ hail!" Yes, there were!

Carol and Edna were only 10 days apart.

Bad/poor land/water management is a factor, more than it is ever said! It is the same for wildfires. When you have/had a policy to put all fires out as much and quick as possible, that has short-term gain, but the long-term issue is that available fuel builds up over time, and eventually, you end up w/ far worse wildfires. This the primary reason why we have seen so many massive wildfires in the U.S. and Canada in the last 10-15 years. Decades of fire suppression has lead to this situation.

That's b/c what "may" happen these days is all too often promoted as "WILL" happen! Low probably events are teased as a done deal. Also, we don't have many very strong El Ninos in the reliable period of record (since the sat era), so no way have we seen the full variance of what can happen w/ sensible wx in X or Y region.

He forget to mention BOS temp is running warm...

I am not a fan of the US Drought Monitor. I've seen a number of learned mets point out many times how mdt-svr drought conditions can exist when rainfall, soil moisture, reservoir levels, and the CMI/PMI are all solid, but *one* thing will be not good, such as snowpack, and that "ruins" it all. Seen this in WA/OR a number of times the last few years. I have little doubt there are political/social/economic factors that mess w/ the objectivity in some areas of the country. Havig drought conditions (a "problem") is a way to funnel/siphon $$. Declare a drought emergency, and that frees up state/federal funds, as one example. In some regards, it has become racket IMHO.

I wouldn't say nefarious, just misleading. The psychological part of viewers is well-known, what gets attention, and what does not. That's fine in itself, but as w/ anything, it can be abused or go off the rails. Back in the day, wx at TV stations was largely left alone, and sometimes plain disrespected. I interned at WNEV (now WHDH) in the late 80s, and I can't tell you how many times Harvey Leonard would get so ticked that they would cut the wx segment time 15 or 30 sec. Whenever the newscast needed to be trimmed as it was occurring, it was *always* was w/ the wxcast! This was regardless of what was going on currently or what was in the fcst. Could have a big storm on the way, and time would be still cut. Of course, that all changed after 1993 or so (Bliz of 93 was game changer). It was discovered there was big ratings in wx, and it went rather quickly from not enough time or attention to the opposite extreme. Wx became front and center in the newscast w/ endless teases and hits, and the amount of time an OCM had to actually put together fcst became less and less. The workload increased considerably w/ more complex graphic systems, the Internet, and then later social media. Wall-to-wall coverage for snowstorms or tornado warnings was never a routine thing, at least in the BOS TV market, until the later 90s. It took an exceptional event, like Hurricanes Gloria and Bob, for continuous news coverage for a wx event. Even CoastalWx became keen to this early on. Ask him about, "Nor'easter 95!" The only big snowstorm in the otherwise terrible 1994-95 season! I may sound like a curmudgeon at times, but that's not a inherently bad ting. Just have the experience of how things have changed over time. Change is inevitable, and it is not always bad, but things have become so crazy w/ wx over time, one is going to point things out, and yes, complain at times, esp. when it has to do w/ one's passion and profession!

Yes, esp. this time of year when large-scale dynamic forcing and strong low pressure areas are less, yet enough of a signal in the probs for SPC to outlook an area. NW flow aloft can lead to some of the best tornado events due to excellent directional shear. We have good speed shear very often, but strong directional shear is much less common. NW flow promotes lee troughing which can back the low-level winds, so you can over 90 deg turning sfc to 500 mb. And you tend to get solid EMLs for more CAPE overall.

K1L8 - Hurricane UT K68S - Davenport WA KE35 - Fabens TX KNWL - Corpus Christi/Waldron NOLF US TX KRIF - Richfield UT

That's odd given the much warmer and more humid climate. People do adapt over time and it's all what one is used to. I noticed it when I first moved to DC. The first couple of summers, it was a bit tough getting used to the persistent HHH wx in the summer (temps avg 6 deg higher in DCA than BOS), but by the 3rd summer, I had adapted. And it works the other way. This past winter was the coldest by far since I moved here, and it was noticeable that temps that I had no issues w/ in BOS were! We all have the same body temp. Yes, some ppl take the heat better, just like some take the cold better, but for the majority, it is about same. There is a reason why 68 F is considered room temp, as a reference standard. If the avg temp is in the low 90s and the DPs in the 70s in the summer, and that mets their criteria, that would mean a continuous state of alert/warning/advisory, and thus they lose their entire meaning! And since humans can live and thrive in areas of the globe that have heat indices 130+ most of the summer (e.g. Middle East), what, is the biology of humans in the U.S. somehow different that elsewhere on the globe?

CoastalWx mentioning national news reminded me of something. This is probably when I came to realize what wx had become in terms of treating the ordinary as extraordinary and the lack of scaling/quantification. In late July 2014 I was visiting a friend at a TV station in NJ, and the ABC Word News Tonight at 630 came on. And the lead story? "We begin tonight w/ svr wx w/ at least one tornado touching down..." This is what happened on this day. https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/140724_rpts.html The tornado in question was in Edgewater FL. It was an EF0 and damaged some hangars and planes at the local airport. No one was hurt. This is national news? This is *local* story only. It was a minor event, par for the course any day in July for svr wx. You have 30 min to talk about news of the world, and this is material for such a newscast? Are you telling me that this is the best the staff of a national newscast can do for a story? It is lazy journalism and wx is low-hanging fruit. Don't get me wrong, wx on a national newscast is entirely relevant, but confine to something significant overall that has widespread impact or causes injuries/fatalities.

Just the topics of logical fallacies and cognitive biases *alone* is so much material. And we can all relate to them well b/c we are all susceptible and/or committed them at one time or another, and have experienced it first hand among the population and media.

Attractive headlines I have no issue w/ on a fundamental level, and they do have plenty of value, but as w/ anything, it can be abused, and that abuse line was crossed a long time ago IMHO. You wrote: "It is always best to ignore the hype in weather and sports... " I agree 100%, but it's very hard to b/c it is everywhere! Yes on social media platforms you can block words/phrases and ppl/sites, but it doesn't catch everything. Just casually watching TV or listening to radio, or ads on on sites like YouTube, it gets you. And over time, the drama, hype, and negative has worked their way into everything. You can't even have escapism watching a movie or show anymore w/o some kind of messaging or virtue signaling randomly inserted that has zero to do w/ the plot, but put in anyways.

It does not surprise me one bit! Never underestimate the drive to get more ratings, no matter how ridiculous or stupid it sounds! And it can be taken even further here, and it proves what I have said so many times in recent years. The ordinary is now turned into extraordinary! So this is a fcst for New Orleans. You know what the normal high temp is for June 27 (date of this article)? 91! And dew points are in the 70s almost all the time in summer, so afternoon heat indices are in the low 100s, and 107 like mentioned here happens a significant part of the time every summer. So how is this "dangerous?" This is normal climate for this area, and ppl are *used* to it. This idea that just b/c temps 90+ and the heat index 100+ somehow that means this summarily bad for humans is bunk. Ppl adapt well to their local climate no problem, have so for 1000s of years. "By Monday, temperatures will surge even higher as a strong heat bubble aloft moves northward over the Tennessee and Ohio River Valleys, keeping the New Orleans area well above normal. Combined with higher humidity, Tuesday is shaping up to be a hot day." 2 F higher is a "surge?" And 3 deg above avg for a high temps is not "well above normal." Oh, the drama! I get sometimes, "well, that's just the way it is." I am not contesting that. Society changes/evolves. What I am contesting is the relentless fear-mongering and making mountains out of molehills. Crying wolf all the time is a bad thing, no? Putting ppl in a constant state of alert is unhealthy both physically and psychologically.