You weather fans of today don’t know how lucky you have it…(smile)
Why, when I was a kid, back in the barren weather data days of the early 70s, we were lucky if we got read the Alabama weather summary by Bill Bolen on the noon news on Channel 6 or on radio station WFMH out of Cullman. You could count on some weather info during Joe Rumore’s morning show on WVOK.
Until Weather Radio arrived in October 1976, times were tough for weather fans. No weather news for 6 hours was typical. The best we could expect to hear about a possible winter weather threat would be within the 3-5 day extended outlook. And then it usually just said “chance of rain or snow.” Not that we still don’t use that ourselves from time to time.
Ray White did a good job of communicating what was going on with chalk and glycerine mixed in an Elmer’s glue bottle on a chalkboard on the 10 p.m. news on Channel 42 starting in 1974.
Aviation Weather on APT on Friday night was a weather fan’s treasure trove with all those great maps. During the school year, for a while, they broadcast the same show and called it AM Weather. That was a great thing.
You could track the latest conditions at the airport by listening to the ATIS broadcast from the Airport on your Patrolman 6 band police radio.
You could call a recorded number and get the Birmingham forecast, and some commentary if you were lucky enough for JB to be working
We had to walk ten miles in the snow (it used to snow back then) to get our weather data from the National Weather Service on West Oxmoor Road.
Now we have all of the weather information you could imagine available to us with great local broadcast meteorologists, access to Doppler Radar, a Weather Channel, and this bonanza called the Internet.
And what I would have given to have been able to hear the behind the scenes thoughts of meteorologists and weather people in real time in forecast discussions from the NWS and teams like ours here at ABC3340. I am not quite sure how people can get upset when we are just trying to communicate what we honestly think will happen. We are certainly not always right, but we try to tell it like it is. Or at least how we think it is going to be.
Bear with us…it is going to be an interesting week.
We are currently coordinating on the morning package and will have the latest for you around 10 o’clock and of course on the 10 p.m. newscast.
We appreciate your support and input. You are the best weather fans in the world.
-Bill
