Weather-MANIA!

Guys, seriously...How long has it been snowing, raining, windy, etc. over the course of history? Pretty much every day, right? Well then, why does it seem that suddenly people are OBSESSED with the weather in an unhealthy way? Take this current snowstorm, for example. Everywhere I go, the ONLY thing people talk about is The Snow; how much we're going to get, how much we've already got, whether or not it will be the last storm of the season, snow days, etc.
I understand that weather can be exciting, but consider the weather channels and news. It almost seems like a whole SWAT team of weather temps have been hired, just to create Power Point presentations about the path of the storm, the severity, etc. Check out this link to see what I mean:

Weather Insanity.


First you have the normal, text report that predicts what the next 24 or 48 hours will bring in terms of weather. But it seems totally unnecessary to have a huge map with glaring yellow font (all in capital letters, naturally!) Highlighting just a few words in summary of what the nasty ol' Mother Nature is going to bring. Because, LAWD knows that we don't have time to read like, a FOUR SENTENCE weather report! We need to get that shit done in four WORDS! "TRAVEL IMPACT BEGINS; SNOW MOVES IN!" In addition, apparently it's super imperative that we also use bold in the text report, because certain words are just so important!
 
Major snowstorm...peak intensity...travel impacts will be major...road travel will become dangerous, if not locally IMPOSSIBLE!

We craft weather reports as if they were newscasts of terrorist attacks.

I can just see a group of production people huddled around a table in the News Channel 13 studio. The conversation probably goes something like this:

Supervisor: "Alright, guys, what have we got set to air for this monster storm today?"

Underling: "Well, I wrote up a couple of paragraphs describing the kind of precipitation we're getting, the amount anticipated, and the impacts it will likely have on everyday life for the next day or two. Also, I included the standard weather map with swirly colorful patterns to indicate where precipitation will be the heaviest."

Supervisor: "STANDARD WEATHER MAP?! You've got to be fucking kidding me. Guys, I want MAGIC, here! I want interactive maps, where you can click online for storm development by the HOUR! I need important words in bold! I HAVE to have 18 point font in piss yellow with slogan-esque DEVASTATION HIGHLIGHTS! This very well could be the last weather incident we witness for the rest of our LIVES!"

Underling: "...Yes, sir. Sorry, sir...I will make the necessary changes."

*Supervisor turns on his heels, takes a sip of his Starbucks Venti Espresso-ccino*(mutters while exiting scene): "Jesus, is anyone else even EXCITED about the weather around here?"