by Kate Johns

Created on: July 17, 2008   Last Updated: February 05, 2012

For 26 years, the weather channel has been reporting about the local weather and the national weather in every major city of the United States. The Weather Channel has been giving us the latest information about all weather related catastrophes for so long that we tune in to the weather channel first to find out what state the latest hurricane is headed for. We have come to rely on the Weather Channel for all weather related information.

The Weather Channel, perhaps the most recognized cable television network in America, is the best source for finding out about the weather in your local area. The Weather Channel has an estimated 96 million viewers in American homes and has some of the most widely recognized television anchors in America as well.

With weather related information coming into your home every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, a person doesn't need to listen to the radio. We don't even need to have a thermometer located next to our kitchen windows anymore, because the Weather Channel will tell us what is going on in our backyards right now.

But do they always get it right?

As a devoted Weather Channel viewer since it's inception in 1982, I have discovered that the weather channel is not always right. Just the other day a storm blew into our area. Turning on the weather channel to see if it was reporting on the mayhem going on, there was the weather on the eights, saying that it was 88 degrees and that it was sunny and clear outside. As the lights flickered off and on again and the wind whipped around outside at about 60 miles an hour, the Weather Channel, didn't tell about the possibility of impending doom. Finally, a full thirty minutes later, the Weather Channel did broadcast the impending storm warning and a possible tornado coming, but it was too late.

Isn't it easier to just open up a window and look outside?

After 26 years of watching the Weather Channel, we Americans have become used to getting our weather served to us on a silver platter. We watch this all- knowing, all- powerful Oz of weather relay information on every state in the union. Many children don't know that they can look outside to see what is happening with the weather. We are literally conditioned to seeing what the current temperature is and what the weather will be later on that same day. And in reality all a person has to do is look at the thermometer hanging on the window to find out what the current temperature is.

Is the weather channel uninteresting and possibly even dull?

The Weather Channel innovators must have realized that they needed to liven it up. They hired new people. They created bigger, more interesting sets that have been created to receive the high definition signal. The Weather Channel has been revamped before with the anchors talking more excitedly like they love all things weather related. They have incorporated new programming into their lineup with a series of reports on global warming, and information about how to protect yourself against the weather.

Alas, even the staid, trusted weather channel has changed with the times. They have made it more interesting to watch the weather, but everything is being thrown at us in hyper drive. You can even access it via the computer and get the latest weather on your cell phone. But, it's just not the same as it was in it's interesting dull old days when the anchors seemed more like your best friend than an updated version of the FOX News Anchors wearing a lot more makeup and showing a lot more cleavage.

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