Snow bomb obs March 21

[weathafella]

9 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

We had an underrated thaw about a week after that event which lasted a good 4-5 days. Basically wiped out the pack we had. Though we quickly got it back with two advisory events back to back on the 23rd and 26th IIRC before the big one on 3/3/94.

Lol...and I flew to London that night.  I frantically called my wife upon arriving in Heathrow.

[henry1978]

10 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

We had an underrated thaw about a week after that event which lasted a good 4-5 days. Basically wiped out the pack we had. Though we quickly got it back with two advisory events back to back on the 23rd and 26th IIRC before the big one on 3/3/94.

Great memory Will.

An icing event took place the Sunday am after the Friday storm, and before that the Tuesday day/Tuesday night/Wednesday all day snow storm. This was during an era when big snowstorms weren't occurring as often as they do today.  Most of eastern MA had double digits for both events sandwiched in between a bright and sunny, but cold Thursday with temps in the 25-33 degree range. No one in SNE was expecting a snowstorm in SNE the next day, friday.  It really wasn't even discussed on the local tv stations on thursday except the chance of light snow and flurries.  All hell didn't break loose with the forecast until the late evening model runs just before the 11pm newscasts.  So many people spent hours on the highways because no one really knew the storm was coming.  This is one of those rare storms where the jackpot was down near new Bedford instead of Foxboro/Sharon/Worcester/interior Plymouth county.

Monday-Thursday after the storm was cold with daily temps in the 20s, then we had at least three days with temps soaring to near 60 or perhaps above each day.  I remember driving with the windows open and deep snow on the ground.  There were no coastal seabreezes either.  The South coast temps even spiked on all these days.  The snowcover was gone in most areas after the end of the torch. Roughly a week later we had a snow event that turned to ice in many areas.  I remember Todd Gross during a today show cut in, saying snow on X day, and it could be heavy with vintage todd gross exuberance.  About 5 inches fell in boston although more was forecast.  The next event occurred a few days later, a clipper and that dropped several inches of fluff on most of SNE.

The early March event had plenty of lead forecast time.  This event had more build up than any event that winter.  But it didn't meet expectations and was a warmer event than originally thought.  Boston changed to rain, and had about 6-7 inches of snow.  I'm sure Worcester and metrowest had upwards of ten inches or maybe more.  The next winter was a total dud, an epic dud with pretty much only one snowstorm in early February, dumping ten plus on NYC, a change to rain in a good part of RI and SE MA with 6-9 in these areas, and 10-15 along 128 towards Worcester where it stayed all snow.

[40/70 Benchmark]

9 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

* inflategate

The funny is part is that Methuen had like 3" less than I did.

My total (Reading coop 1.7" LE) worked out to an 18:1 ratio.

Pretty reasonable for the middle of a deformation band in a blizzard.

[wxeyeNH]

Just catching up on this thread.  What great conversation.  Im 61 and grew up in the Boston market and agree with what all of you all are saying.  Let me digress.  Back in the day when I was a youngster, there was the one and great  Don Kent.  The Met that began it all in the Boston market.  A great communicator, well liked and had a passion for weather forecasting.  Passion is the key!  Most of us board members have it but if getting up in front of a TV camera is only a job for you and if weather is not a passion then you  will never be a great on air Met.   In the 60's for the public there was really only calling  936-1212 for weather info or watching TV.  I don't remember anyone other than Don Kent Ch 4 and Bob Copeland Ch 5.  Don Kent had so many weather rules.  "If its over 25F on the summit of Mt Washington Boston will have mostly rain".  Stuff like that. Rudimentary but surprisingly accurate.  No radar, no satellite, no models, perhaps the LFM?  Moving forward I always thought Barry and Harvey were the best.  No hype but passion and great forecasters.  Nice people too.  I have had dinner with Harvey and was down at Ch 7 from time to time and also knew  Barry, Todd and  Mark Rosenthal personally since I was such a weenie.  Just lived for the weather.  Moved up here out of the Boston market in 2001 and now have the models and places like AMWX so don't bother with TV.  There is no real insight that the TV Mets are going to give that this board doesn't.  Now its a revolving door.  It seems that  attractiveness is much more important than knowledge and education.

[40/70 Benchmark]

3 hours ago, weathafella said:

Tom Chisholm sucked.  He was forecasting locally on the morning of 12/23 he on air said “don’t worry about this little bit of snow-the sun will melt it in not time..”.   Ron Harris was decent and a real snow lover.  Todd Gross was not that good either.  Here are the good ones over the years in Boston:

Harvey 

Dick Albert

mark Rosenthal 

bob copeland

Don Kent

Norm Macdonald 

John Ghiorse (Providence)

I liked todd Gross.

[ORH_wxman]

8 minutes ago, henry1978 said:

Great memory Will.

An icing event took place the Sunday am after the Friday storm, and before that the Tuesday day/Tuesday night/Wednesday all day snow storm. This was during an era when big snowstorms weren't occurring as often as they do today.  Most of eastern MA had double digits for both events sandwiched in between a bright and sunny, but cold Thursday with temps in the 25-33 degree range. No one in SNE was expecting a snowstorm in SNE the next day, friday.  It really wasn't even discussed on the local tv stations on thursday except the chance of light snow and flurries.  All hell didn't break loose with the forecast until the late evening model runs just before the 11pm newscasts.  So many people spent hours on the highways because no one really knew the storm was coming.  This is one of those rare storms where the jackpot was down near new Bedford instead of Foxboro/Sharon/Worcester/interior Plymouth county.

Monday-Thursday after the storm was cold with daily temps in the 20s, then we had at least three days with temps soaring to near 60 or perhaps above each day.  I remember driving with the windows open and deep snow on the ground.  There were no coastal seabreezes either.  The South coast temps even spiked on all these days.  The snowcover was gone in most areas after the end of the torch. Roughly a week later we had a snow event that turned to ice in many areas.  I remember Todd Gross during a today show cut in, saying snow on X day, and it could be heavy with vintage todd gross exuberance.  About 5 inches fell in boston although more was forecast.  The next event occurred a few days later, a clipper and that dropped several inches of fluff on most of SNE.

The early March event had plenty of lead forecast time.  This event had more build up than any event that winter.  But it didn't meet expectations and was a warmer event than originally thought.  Boston changed to rain, and had about 6-7 inches of snow.  I'm sure Worcester and metrowest had upwards of ten inches or maybe more.  The next winter was a total dud, an epic dud with pretty much only one snowstorm in early February, dumping ten plus on NYC, a change to rain in a good part of RI and SE MA with 6-9 in these areas, and 10-15 along 128 towards Worcester where it stayed all snow.

3/3/94 was great in ORH...had about 13 inches of wind driven snow...the wind is what I remember. Very consistently strong. Packed the snow into that dense dry cement which made it a pain to shovel. A week later we had a snow to ice to rain event...then exactly a week after that we had the surprise St. Patty's day snow. Only an inch or two was forecast and we got 6". That was a good winter....had good events in all 4 months.

 

1994-1995 was about as bad a winter as it gets...the only saving grace was the Feb 4, 1995 storm that dropped 14 inches and it was pretty cold for a good two weeks after that so we managed to keep it around. But it still probably rates as my 2nd worst winter ever...only 1988-1989 was worse. We couldn't even get a storm over 5 inches that winter. Absolutely pathetic. The Feb 24-25, 1989 bust was the icing on the cake that sealed that winter as the worst ever.

[40/70 Benchmark]

2 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

3/3/94 was great in ORH...had about 13 inches of wind driven snow...the wind is what I remember. Very consistently strong. Packed the snow into that dense dry cement which made it a pain to shovel. A week later we had a snow to ice to rain event...then exactly a week after that we had the surprise St. Patty's day snow. Only an inch or two was forecast and we got 6". That was a good winter....had good events in all 4 months.

 

1994-1995 was about as bad a winter as it gets...the only saving grace was the Feb 4, 1995 storm that dropped 14 inches and it was pretty cold for a good two weeks after that so we managed to keep it around. But it still probably rates as my 2nd worst winter ever...only 1988-1989 was worse. We couldn't even get a storm over 5 inches that winter. Absolutely pathetic. The Feb 24-25, 1989 bust was the icing on the cake that sealed that winter as the worst ever.

I think 2011-2012 is my worst.

Even took a porking in the October event.

[weathafella]

5 minutes ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

I think 2011-2012 is my worst.

Even took a porking in the October event.

Agree.  2001-02 was close.

[40/70 Benchmark]

2 minutes ago, weathafella said:

Agree.  2001-02 was close.

Yea..the snow bowl night was my tiebreaker.

[henry1978]

19 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

Just catching up on this thread.  What great conversation.  Im 61 and grew up in the Boston market and agree with what all of you all are saying.  Let me digress.  Back in the day when I was a youngster, there was the one and great  Don Kent.  The Met that began it all in the Boston market.  A great communicator, well liked and had a passion for weather forecasting.  Passion is the key!  Most of us board members have it but if getting up in front of a TV camera is only a job for you and if weather is not a passion then you  will never be a great on air Met.   In the 60's for the public there was really only calling  936-1212 for weather info or watching TV.  I don't remember anyone other than Don Kent Ch 4 and Bob Copeland Ch 5.  Don Kent had so many weather rules.  "If its over 25F on the summit of Mt Washington Boston will have mostly rain".  Stuff like that. Rudimentary but surprisingly accurate.  No radar, no satellite, no models, perhaps the LFM?  Moving forward I always thought Barry and Harvey were the best.  No hype but passion and great forecasters.  Nice people too.  I have had dinner with Harvey and was down at Ch 7 from time to time and also knew  Barry, Todd and  Mark Rosenthal personally since I was such a weenie.  Just lived for the weather.  Moved up here out of the Boston market in 2001 and now have the models and places like AMWX so don't bother with TV.  There is no real insight that the TV Mets are going to give that this board doesn't.  Now its a revolving door.  It seems that  attractiveness is much more important than knowledge and education.

Don Kent was New England to the bone.  Back in those days even if you lived in Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and parts of Vermont and Connecticut you knew who don kent, and you played with your rabbit ears to tune into channel 4.  Before channel 5 was king channel 4 was king because it was first on air and of course because the radio signal was so strong.  Don Kent sounded liked he belonged on tv in Massachusetts.  Just like Ken Coleman sounded like he should be the red sox announcer.  I saw a clip from red sox opening day, april 1978.  John Dennis was interviewing fans before entering fenway.  Such thick accents.  We don't hear that anymore.  Total, eastern new England.  I also saw a clip from the beanpot the night of the blizzard of 78.  thousands of fans in attendance.  People sleeping in the garden with rats crawling around.  The beanpot would've been cancelled two days in advance had this occurred today.  

Sadly don kent and bob Copeland would not make it on tv today.  The consultants, producers, owners and news directors would say the accents were too thick, the rate of speech isn't fast enough and the cheek bones aren't high enough.

[CoastalWx]

Ahh Feb 94. The birth of the CJ. A momentous occasion for Ray.

[CoastalWx]

1 hour ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

I think 2011-2012 is my worst.

Even took a porking in the October event.

Without a doubt.

[ORH_wxman]

28 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Ahh Feb 94. The birth of the CJ. A momentous occasion for Ray.

 

[The 4 Seasons]

2001-2002 was far worse than 11-12 here in CT.

Literally 1 single snow event (3-6" ended up with around 4" or so). Jan 19th 2001.

4" on that date, 7" on the season, worst winter imaginable. 

Hopefully something like that does not happen again. 

[Typhoon Tip]

Fwiw -

I interned with Harv for six months through the 1996-1997 winter, and upon more than one occasion we extolled the remarkable forecasting successes of the 1995-1996 winter, more importantly ... how (similar to what Ryan was saying) it was kind of a double-edged sword;  people's expectations were really elevated because of that year. That may be why some users of this forum might believe that 'decade' had some sort of particular charm for deterministic sciences... But, I don't believe the one year really defines the entire era, no. It was a good year though; I recall discussing it with him and Michele Michaels, who worked the noon hour ahead of Harvey.   Anyway, highlights on extended reels showed snowfall question-marks, some eight days out, and having those threats realize with shocking regularity actually did in the met community ... 

I understand what Will is saying about the 1990s being a putrid decade for deterministic Meteorology. I cannot comment on the rest of that decade, ..that probably is true what he is saying. My hunch is ... if there could be some sort of objective rating perhaps graphically showing, you might see a abysmal curve with a pretty spectacular single season spike for that one season.  The models actually nailed the non-snow events to with remarkable coherency guys. That MN cutter that drove southerly gales and temps soaring to nearly 60 F was nailed.  I remember that specifically.

[Cobalt]

8 hours ago, Hazey said:

As it stands now winter here gets a solid D-. Reasons are

-No storm greater than 9" (lots of pennies and nickels)

-Green Christmas

-combined 6 weeks worth of no snow otg (only 2 weeks in January had solid snow cover)

-February torch.

-70% of normal (66" vs 83")

Regression to the mean.

If you don't mind me asking, what are the usual odds of a white Christmas for you? Just curios. Thanks!

[Hazey]

If you don't mind me asking, what are the usual odds of a white Christmas for you? Just curios. Thanks!

58%. We usually get one every 3 or 4 years. Last one here was 2013 so a bit long but the last three have been torchfests so it seems much longer and harder to bare.

[henry1978]

everyone forgets that 1996-1997 was also a mess.  But it started off great for the hilly areas west of boston.  Will probably knows the exact details.  there were two storms if I remember correctly, both in December, that featured double digit snowfalls in Worcester. I don't remember boston, pvd or taunton getting much out of these events or even 128.  One of which featured jim cantore reporting live in Worcester with thunder snow. I don't think really much happened for the balance of the winter except for an event in either late December or early January that dropped 4-7 on either a Friday night/Saturday am or a Saturday night/sunday am.

Of course the april fools 1997 blizzard cancels out the bad winter and no one forgets the balance of the winter was so bad.

 

 

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, The 4 Seasons said:

2001-2002 was far worse than 11-11 here in CT.

Literally 1 single snow event (3-6" ended up with around 4' or so). Jan 19th 2001

4" that date, 7" on the season, worst winter imaginable. 

So hard to fathom that happening given the past 7 winters.

[henry1978]

5 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah TWC really screwed up for a while...I will say though that they seem to be turning it around. Their 2017 ratings were up like 15-20% over the previous year and this year is doing well again. Their live coverage in big events has really improved big time. They seem to recognize that live coverage is the way to go...focus on where the weather is happening and hammer it home. The need for the 5 day business planner and the travelers report sponsored by michelin tires repeating every hour is gone due to weather apps and internet. But people still tune in during an event for live coverage...and they seem to recognize that now more than ever. For a time in between about 2006 and a couple years ago, they had so much taped crap on there that even during winter storms, you were getting only brief live coverage at the top of the hour. They foolishly got rid of the winter weather expert Kocin for a time...but smartly brought back the position with Tom Niziol now on there (very smart guy...one of the leaders behind BUFKIT creation during his days at NWS BUF in the 1980s/1990s). I still really hate their named winter storms, but aside from that, I can say they have upper their game. Their severe and tropical coverage is quite good too....though nobody will ever match John Hope's knowledge.

John Hope was old school and beloved by colleagues and viewers.  He was old, not flashy but still damn good during Hugo in 1989.  He had a senior position at the national hurricane center prior to twc and I think he served in world war 2 as a forecaster.  Pioneers in this profession like john hope are so revered because they began at a time when they basically had the entire profession to themselves.  Even though local tv news stations came into being as affiliates of the big three national networks and began developing local newscasts during the 1960s (some like wbz tv as early as the 50s) this didn't mean all these new tv stations took weather seriously in most cities.   Weather was a joke at many local stations around the country.  For every Don kent up until the 1970s there were comedic fools like pat sajak and david letterman doing the weather all across the country.  Stations had weather girls.  This didn't work out well and it would basically be thirty years before we again saw women doing the weather in local television.  Of course the weather channel went nutty when they began sexing up their on camera women 35 years later forcing conservative Christian southern women like marny stanier to wear more revealing clothing and lots of make up.  The lawsuits began.  It was uncomfortable to watch because what they were doing to poor marny was so obvious.

By 2005 they had abandoned all pretense, thinking they were aaron spelling producing charlies angels they outfitted Vivian brown, Kristina Abernathy, heather tesch and Stephanie abrams in the tightest shirts they could find on sale at the Atlanta branch of boobs r us.

Most of us over 35 who used to watch TWC back in the day pre internet rarely watch TWC now, but I still love john madden of weather cantore's enthusiasm and south florida legend bryan norcross is a brilliant communicator.  With the new ownership who knows what's gonna happen to them?  The old TWC, the original twc had a mix of a lot of people from different parts of the country many of whom were different, unique, clumsy but fun to watch.  Some were horrid reading the map in front of them and some were true experts.

I was living in Washington in march of 2001 when bill keneely was covering the big blizzard that was supposed to hit Washington but didn't.  He was in a satellite truck in front of the capitol on a rainy, cold Saturday and literally no one was around.  I talked to him for an hour or so before they were about to head north in the truck to find some snow farther up the coast.  I asked him why he never left twc.  he certainly had the skills to be a lead forecaster in one of the big cities.  He didn't give me much of an answer, and I didn't press him.  

[STILL N OF PIKE]

Exceptional conversation folks. Good stuff 

W the exception of sexing women up, distasteful, offensive? Ummm nah

One of my all time favorites on T.W.C was Dave Schwartz. His delivery was smooth. He was a cool cat.

[henry1978]

44 minutes ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

Exceptional conversation folks. Good stuff 

W the exception of sexing women up, distasteful, offensive? Ummm nah

One of my all time favorites on T.W.C was Dave Schwartz. His delivery was smooth. He was a cool cat.

dave was great.  Great personality!  He never should've been fired.  He was fired in 2008 during the NBC purge when they took over the weather channel and tried, and failed to turn it into a profit machine thinking taped programming that was working well for nbcuniversal on weekends on MSNBC and CNBC would help attract young viewers to the weather channel in prime time during the week and pretty much day and night during the weekends.  it didn't work and they devalued the entire network to the point where it has lost many millions in value.  nbc jumped ship.  Now a comedian who owns a tv company owns the network.

Dave was rehired several years later, but he was sick and it wasn't the same.  He died of cancer a couple years ago.

We'll see what comedian and new owner Byron allen does with the channel?  Maybe we'll see Steph abrams in a bikini Monday morning live from spring break?  wet tee shirt contests at 50 minutes past every hour?  Instead of weather and your health, sex tips on hot, humid summer nights? 

[#NoPoles]

I religiously watched the tropical forecast on TWC. Was heartbroken when John Hope passed away. Wasn't he on every 45mins past the hour?

The year leading up to Todd Gross getting canned and disappearing for a while, had some pretty epic Blog battles between Todd and Pete Bouchard. Todd as chief Meteorologist would do the evening blog and would be so passive aggressive concerning Pete's Blog post from the morning. Sometimes Pete would rip Todd's Blog from the night before, when he submitted his the following morning.

Then Todd disappeared and Pete took over in a span of 24hrs. Todd resurfaced a few months later for NBC in Salt lake City. He was introduced to the viewing audience as being the Meteorologist featured in the movie, The Perfect Storm. He was interviewed and told the viewing audience  he was the first met to correctly forecast that storm.

[henry1978]

Todd did some work in the rather uneventful winter of 2006 at a tv station in springfield after he was escorted out of channel 7 in December 2005. That winter he also had a weather website, including a cape and islands weather website.  If I remember correctly immediately following his termination he went online with his own site and did a far better job predicting the December 9 2005 snow and epic wind burst than pete bouchard.  Todd never spoke on the record about his departure from channel 7 and he was never seen nor heard again on boston tv.  The Globe and herald each did stories about it, as did some boston tv news blogs at the time that no longer exist.

His departure really bothered me.  I had been watching him basically my whole life and loved his enthusiasm for snow and his weatherman on steroids delivery.  

I began touching base with him in the summer of 2006, hoping he could work at the NBC start up they were creating known as NBC weather plus.  Nothing came of that, and some time later he got the job I believe at the abc affiliate in salt lake city. The website of this station I don't recall being very good and I don't remember being able to view his forecasts there on a daily basis online.  

He initially called the perfect storm Halloween horror.  Some of the post storm newscast from November 1 1991 is on youtube.  Remarkably channel 7 didn't open that day's noon newscast with storm coverage!  That would never happen today.  Imagine Massachusetts essentially getting a hurricane and the next day the CBS affiliate doesn't open with storm coverage.  Weather events weren't as dominant back then as they are today in local tv news.  

The tropical update on twc was either 48 or 50 minutes past the hour, as was the winter storm update in the winter.  I forget what time the Michelin driver's report ran but it educated me on the nation's interstates.  To this day I rarely use gps when traveling because of the Michelin driver's report.  The days inn five days business planner ran at twenty minutes after the hour.  I never liked weather and your health.  I liked the European forecast which ran a few times a day.  Half the kids probably have no idea what we're talking about.  The same commercials ran every day.  Colombian coffee.  the richest coffee in the world.  Hand picked by juan baldez.  How can I forget the business traveler's forecast.  Cable and graphics were in their infancy back then.  very innocent, very simple.

[henry1978]

when you consider the talent pools at all the boston tv stations plus NECN from 2006 till now someone could have and should have found a spot for todd gross on local television.  This applies to today as well because he always looked younger than his actual age. Someone in Providence could have picked him up over these years and he could have commuted from his home.  The local tv stations did a disservice to viewers keeping todd gross off the air all these years.  Guys like dave brown, todd gunter, ken barlow didn't have his energy or his incredible love for weather and skill for long range forecasting.  He would sometimes pat himself on the back but I found it funny and endearing.  I don't think people were really very interested in astronomy nor were people all that interested in aviation weather with bruce schwoegler.  (But New Englanders sure liked candlepin bowling.)  google bob gamere.  Bruce wasn't liked by everybody and he could be a diva but he did reach legendary status working on the iconic new England brand wbz for 33 years.  WBZ lost its luster when it lost its nbc affiliation in 1995.

eric fisher probably has the brightest and longest career ahead of him compared to anyone on air currently in boston. But I don't see the talent level of local weather stars who began their careers in the 1970s walking through that door anytime soon.

[weathafella]

There may be things only Todd and few others know.   It could be why he hasn’t caught on anywhere.   Stuff like this happens in every business.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

1 hour ago, henry1978 said:

when you consider the talent pools at all the boston tv stations plus NECN from 2006 till now someone could have and should have found a spot for todd gross on local television.  This applies to today as well because he always looked younger than his actual age. Someone in Providence could have picked him up over these years and he could have commuted from his home.  The local tv stations did a disservice to viewers keeping todd gross off the air all these years.  Guys like dave brown, todd gunter, ken barlow didn't have his energy or his incredible love for weather and skill for long range forecasting.  He would sometimes pat himself on the back but I found it funny and endearing.  I don't think people were really very interested in astronomy nor were people all that interested in aviation weather with bruce schwoegler.  (But New Englanders sure liked candlepin bowling.)  google bob gamere.  Bruce wasn't liked by everybody and he could be a diva but he did reach legendary status working on the iconic new England brand wbz for 33 years.  WBZ lost its luster when it lost its nbc affiliation in 1995.

eric fisher probably has the brightest and longest career ahead of him compared to anyone on air currently in boston. But I don't see the talent level of local weather stars who began their careers in the 1970s walking through that door anytime soon.

You also don’t see Mets sticking around long anymore. Guys like Harvey and Barry Burbank spanning 4+ decades is something that will probably never been seen again.

i would agree though. You’d think Eric Fisher is in for the long haul, given he’s got a chief met gig and is from this area, but you never know anymore. People bounce from one job and place to another more now than ever before. Everyone has a price, which is something to always remember.

[henry1978]

14 minutes ago, weathafella said:

There may be things only Todd and few others know.   It could be why he hasn’t caught on anywhere.   Stuff like this happens in every business.

that's what everyone thought on those anonymous boston tv news blogs when the firing happened.  Those blogs had sources inside the boston tv stations and I think that if anything inappropriate had happened word would have leaked out.  But who knows.  I really don't think anything inappropriate happened because he worked in salt lake city for a time and it's the most conservative city in America.  He also covered major weather events at CNBC which is available in 90 million homes in America.  

Mark Rosenthal's departure is easier to explain because of his long hair, attire, etc.

[henry1978]

15 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

You also don’t see Mets sticking around long anymore. Guys like Harvey and Barry Burbank spanning 4+ decades is something that will probably never been seen again.

i would agree though. You’d think Eric Fisher is in for the long haul, given he’s got a chief met gig and is from this area, but you never know anymore. People bounce from one job and place to another more now than ever before. Everyone has a price, which is something to always remember.

Boston is currently the 9th largest tv market in America.  It's dropped a couple tics in recent years as the sunbelt has grown in popularity.  But I'd venture to guess that Boston has some of the highest salaries of weather forecasters in the whole country because boston has the snowiest climate of any major city in America including Chicago.  A skilled forecaster isn't as important in LA, San Francisco as it is in boston where snow is such a major factor 4 months out of the year.  Dallas has severe weather but thunderstorms and tornadoes don't generate as many eyeballs like snow does in new England.  I'm sure weather salaries are high in DC, Chicago, Philly and NYC.  Houston has hurricanes but I was watching during the flooding all their affiliates and I wasn't impressed with the talent pool there.  One guy did impress me at the abc affiliate there.  His name was travis Herzog.  One of the best METS under forty in the nation.

Massachusetts people are more educated than just about any other state in America.  Educated people watching at home don't like to be fooled when idiots are giving them the weather so this is why the talent pool for boston tv stations is higher than other big markets IMO.

tom skilling at wgn in Chicago is reportedly the highest paid met in the nation in local television, although wgn still has quasi super station status.  I never had wgn on my cable when I was growing up.  I would've loved to have listened to harry caray.

[henry1978]

21 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

You also don’t see Mets sticking around long anymore. Guys like Harvey and Barry Burbank spanning 4+ decades is something that will probably never been seen again.

i would agree though. You’d think Eric Fisher is in for the long haul, given he’s got a chief met gig and is from this area, but you never know anymore. People bounce from one job and place to another more now than ever before. Everyone has a price, which is something to always remember.

Guys like barry Burbank and chuck scarborough in NYC staying at one station is probably a thing of the past.  But, our buddy Ryan has been on air at the NBC o and o in Hartford for 14 years.  he's young, he works his butt off so he could stay there a long time but a lot of variables are involved in this business and sometimes there are ownership changes so its never a guarantee and there are no life time contracts unless you're tommy heinsohn or vin scully.  CBS escorted dan rather out of the building and they wound up in court.  The NBC station in PVD used to be owned and operated by NBC and now it's owned by the FOX News of local tv news, Sinclair broadcasting.  So if you want to still work at channel 10 in PVD and you're a liberal you're s.o.l.  lol.