I saw that, and am appalled. Local weather is a big reason many people tune in to the news, and some of those locations are subject to major weather events, or are micro-climates relative to the next closest weather market. Local meteorologists can tell you even which roads might be impacted by an event. No national system tells you that. Or relates it to the event that happened a few days before. I realize that these are not major markets, but they matter in a major way. Not to mention, the trust that builds with local meteorologists, or even weathermen who are not meteorologists but have much experience in covering and informing us about local weather.

Honestly, we often simply turn on the news when the weather comes on. A fire 56 miles away doesn’t likely affect me, but the weather does.

Not sure how real time Tornado tracking would work under this situation.

That's horrible! There's no way for TWC to know and understand the different communities and their needs.

Reading your comment Outside P turned on a lightbulb in my head, for a few possible explanations.

The towns you've listed are all on the smallish side. Not large media markets. Considering the changes in traditional media over the last decade and more, I would ask rhetorically which of these towns had thriving local newspapers 15 years ago and which still do today? Whose coverage and size haven't shriveled down to be a shadow of their former self? I'd guess few or none.

Local TV hasn't fared better than print media. Smaller town media markets are less lucrative than they used to be. The cut back in local weather coverage seems like no more than a cost savings measure, perhaps scaling back expense to match scaled back revenue.

A search took me to the Wiki page for Allen Media (owned, incidentally, by former performer/comedian Byron Allen). It mentions that last year several hundred employees had been laid off. It also mentions that it owns The Weather Channel, so that's the tie-in for the situation you describe.

Similarly, by the way, formerly lucrative local radio stations are quite often owned by large chains and broadcast content is centrally produced rather than locally produced.

I'm not a watcher of local news so should that happen where I am, it wouldn't matter much to me. What has been a big loss as far as I'm concerned has been the decline of newspapers. My area used to have a robust paper, one that rivaled and achieved more in many ways than the ones in San Francisco. It's a shadow of its former self today and no longer worth subscribing to. Also, on a larger scale,, I just discontinued my LA Times subscription. A great paper through most of my life, always worth reading, is no longer so. Just a few months ago was renewal time and I was informed that the cost was going up to about $200 per year, I sadly realized it was time to pull the plug.

On the weather front, I don't know how much The Weather Channel uses or cooperates with the National Weather Service but I do know it has local meteorologists all over the country and at least judging by the locations whose reports I refer to online, it does an EXCELLENT job. Especially considering how in my areas there are so many microclimates and how weather can be different 5 miles down the road.

An article I read this morning assured us that during a weather event, there would be local coverage on the ground, but by whom? Also that Weather Channel could potentially hire many of the people laid off by Allen, so just moving over to the wolf?

" Weather Channel could potentially hire many of the people laid off by Allen "

Take a look at the Wiki page I mentioned above. The Weather Channel IS Allen, a division or sub. Just like its local stations are.

Oh sure, we’ve been somewhat assured that coverage will continue, but to what extent and to what level? Yes, most of these markets are smaller, as one would expect, however our city is the second largest in the state; some argue that by population sprawl is now the largest so it doesn’t make sense. Except our station is just collateral damage for whatever reason. And we definitely have more major weather events in our section of the state than other sections except maybe Mobile on the other end of the state on the coast.

I can assure you, people here are glued to the local stations and their meteorologists for storm updates when they are occurring. There is an entire cottage industry here built around tornado identification and tracking, built up by a local guy who once worked for one of the local stations and saw the need for better storm tracking systems.

Newspapers are a whole other topic, but yes, sadly going digital.

I remember a few ill-timed trips to Birmingham when it was having potentially dangerous weather. There was a weatherman on one of the local stations who seemed to be the go-to person to watch.

His mantra, repeated frequently, was "Respect the polygon". Seemingly having to do with polygons drawn by the weather forecasters on the local maps, and redrawn every 5 minutes or so, showing the likely places where tornados could touch down.

Whether his style was real and scientifically informed or simply intended to make an impression on viewers, I don't know. It certainly made an impression on me.

Seems like weather reporters are about the only media that people trust these days.

I thought TWC used data from the NWS? I know that we have local weather stations for the NWS/NOAA that report local conditions on a granular level - the closest is just across town, next to the local coast guard station. I use the NOAA weather app on my phone, and have their website bookmarked on my desktop. We rely on both often, not just for my own area, but for areas where my family lives and for traveling too.

I've been seeing headlines about weather services being cut by our new administration for awhile now. It just seems like pure stupidity to me - especially here, after 2 back to back hurricanes destroyed a huge swath of the state.

Carol, they probably do, but the issue is the real-time, on the scene reporting from local sources vs a possible delay in reporting from TWC, which comes in filtered from NWS. I think everyone uses NWS-reported data but most stations here have their own systems as well to analyze the data, as you said, at a more granular level among other things.

I know Allen owns Weather Channel. that’s kind of what I meant by going over to the wolf.

I seem to recall that the current president, during the previous term, wanted to shut down the National Weather Service and farm it out to TWC. How do you feel about that?

If you think of the business as being nefarious in some way, isn't it all of it?

" Seems like weather reporters are about the only media that people trust these days. "

arcy, I think the only reasonable thing for you to do from this point forward is to ignore any and all information you see or hear. Anything from any media outlet included, trust no one.

“Not sure how real time Tornado tracking would work under this situation.”

Can’t someone just step in with a Sharpie?