What We Saw Watching Severe Weather Coverage This Week
What We Saw Watching Severe Weather Coverage This Week
Our "monitoring posts" across the country tracked the severe weather coverage from local television stations from Arkansas to Ohio over the past couple of days. We watched the live streams of stations in various markets, large and small. After hours of viewing, we have some takeaways from what we saw and wanted to share them--in the hopes that it might benefit those of you who are on the front lines and working on such coverage (or may do so in the future.). At the very least, we hope to inspire some discussions about how to improve your station’s severe weather coverage, as we see that coverage as the most important opportunity to serve your audience and perhaps potentially grow it simultaneously.
Before continuing on this topic, let us clearly state that we have the utmost respect for the women and men who staff local television newsrooms and jump at a moment's notice to begin what is known as "wall-to-wall" coverage of severe weather. The meteorologists at these stations can and do help save lives by bringing viewers not only the live coverage of what the radar is showing (often their station's privately-owned Doppler radars with significant pricetags) as well as urging people to take the safety precautions that can be the difference in surviving a direct hit from a bad storm.
Let’s start with preparation. Many stations have adopted the “Weather Alert Day” model of highlighting days when weather is likely to impact viewers significantly. This idea has led to “First Alert Days,” “Weather Warn Days,” “Sky Aware Days,” and the questionably named Tegna variant of “Weather Impact Days.” For some stations, detailed playbooks have been developed for handling a weather alert day, both leading up to it and on the day itself. We’re fans of giving viewers as much advance notice of potential weather that may disrupt their daily routines.
But we have also heard some “nattering nabobs of negativity" (as former Vice President Spiro Agnew once labeled the press) complain that a weather alert is just repackaging of the convective outlooks issued by the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center. If you have never looked at these outlooks, they are the source of the “threat maps” that meteorologists often use. They indicate a scale of risk of severe weather from marginal to high. These frequently cover the part of the country's middle known as “tornado alley.” Let us quickly add that almost any place can be hit with severe enough weather to produce “tornadic activity."
Regardless of how they came into being, the one thing that calling a weather alert day should do for a station is initiate planning for coverage of a severe weather event. Things like making sure at least one meteorologist is on duty throughout the period. However, we increasingly see stations teaming up two mets for severe weather coverage because handling the wave of information that comes in can overwhelm one person working (and speaking) non-stop for long periods. But the orchestration of having two mets handing off back and forth to each other can be tricky.
Several stations we viewed executed the “weather tag team” well in our scanning coverage in several markets. One in particular we’d note was KAIT in Jonesboro, Arkansas, which fielded a team of three meteorologists, including chief meteorologist Ryan Vaughn. The K8 News Storm Team trio followed one of the key concepts we try to impress on stations. That is having one person lead the coverage, and other team members act in a supporting role, supporting the lead presenter and feeding them information throughout the wall-to-wall coverage. The lead meteorologist should be on camera for the majority of the coverage.
We also noted a couple of stations, including Nashville’s WTVF, that would leave the radar on screen for long periods, with no one on camera working the radar, just an off-camera voice narrating the radar image. Having a meteorologist on camera most of the time is to help the viewers understand what they are looking at. We get that a solo meteorologist may be forced into doing this when they have to be both on the air and “drive the radar” simultaneously. However, the viewers need to see their “weather expert" both to understand exactly what they are looking at and to connect to someone who can let them know what they should do.
Another note here, this one for news anchors. Anchors have an essential role in continuing severe weather coverage. They should be the conduits for supplemental information from official sources and handling viewer-generated content, such as photos and videos. One thing we saw happen at a few stations was switching to a camera to show the anchors at the news desk. We strongly advocate that the weather radar should never leave the screen during severe weather coverage. Anchor microphones can be opened to talk with the meteorologist on the air and provide a much-needed break from speaking for a few moments. Also please remember that if your weather warning crawl system includes a small radar “thumbnail” image, it is likely not shown on your live stream. And that live stream is where people who have lost power or are in a safe space are likely watching your signal. We heard many on-meteorologists remind viewers to stay with coverage on their smartphones while they were reviewing safety precautions. This reminded us of legendary meteorologist Gary England of Oklahoma City’s KWTV, who once told viewers in the path of a tornado to “turn the television up real loud” before you head to the basement."
Also, remember that a considerable segment of the audience will be listening more than watching. Consider it vital to provide "radio with pictures" and describe everything you show on the screen in detail.
Orchestrating this kind of smooth production in an unscripted, “flying by the seat of your pants” manner takes people who respect and trust each other. Successful severe weather coverage is mastered by practicing the drill before you have to do it for real. We believe that producing this kind of coverage parallels a live sports event. Remember that people will constantly join the coverage in progress, just like watching a game. Having a "game reset" is crucial about every twenty minutes. This means when it's possible to take a moment to tell viewers what time it is and give them an overview of the "big picture.” Pull the radar view back to a market-wide image and briefly overview what is happening. Someone just tuning in may not live in the area, which is the hardest hit at that exact moment. Producers, you can help by cueing the meteorologist of the need to do the "reset" by keeping an eye on the clock to remind the meteorologist on the air.
We don't want to channel Alec Baldwin's performance in the movie "Glengarry Glen Ross" too much, but we've always tried to equally impress weather teams with the abbreviation "A-B-T," short for "Always Be Tracking." The most essential information viewers want is not just where the severe weather is at the present moment--but where it is headed and when it will arrive. Using the “storm track" feature of the radar software to show this is what the viewers want. Some meteorologists do this less frequently than they should. Again, this is where producers in the control room can help remind the meteorologist that showing a storm track regularly is what the viewers want to know. Including an updated storm track as part of the “reset” moments we previously mentioned is a good practice.
We also noticed some meteorologists calling up State Department of Transportation highway cameras during severe weather coverage. The extent of these state-owned camera networks varies depending on location, but they can be helpful. That said, we understand that there is a desire to show any video that might depict the weather conditions, but in the darkness of nighttime, these cameras typically drop into a low-light, black-and-white mode and may not show anything of value to the viewer. Shoutout to Nashville’s WSMV for always showing these cameras in a double box with their radar during the coverage we watched.
Speaking of live pictures in severe weather, we must talk about safety and having crews out in severe weather. There is no need to put anyone at risk to cover severe weather. Pre-positioning crews across a market before severe weather hits makes a ton of sense. If it's possible to have a camera pointed outside at the weather while sheltered, that’s great. But no one needs to think they are going to be a modern-day Dan Rather (for older folks) or Jim Cantore (for the younger ones reading this) out in a storm trying to describe how bad it is. There will be plenty to cover when the storm has passed and the damage left behind.
A final point we’d make (and yes, we know we have made many of them) is that the tone of coverage matters considerably. These are high-stress situations for the people working in the television station and for the viewers worried about what could threaten their safety. We would remind those working in local TV stations that this is a time for professionalism to shine. The tone of those on the air has to convey the importance of the moment, and the confidence that the information being delivered is clear, critical, and concise. In our viewing, we were impressed by the work of a few stations in this specific aspect: WTHR in Indianapolis, WKRC-TV in Cincinnati and WSMV in Nashville.
Newsroom leaders must monitor their severe weather coverage and provide real-time feedback to adjust coverage as may be needed throughout the event. Conducting a follow-up review not long after coverage ends is essential to reinforce what worked and fix what didn’t.
Of course, this one post won’t cover every aspect of severe weather coverage. We will discuss some other topics in a future installment here. In the meantime, as the wartime poster in London during the Second World War said it best: “Keep Calm and Carry On."
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