Tracking Weather Online

Suppose you live in south Florida and have received various warnings that a severe hurricane is headed your way. Now, say you don't have a TV or radio anywhere near you. What do you do to track the weather? Well, you can check it online.

Now, I don't consider weather coverage journalism per se. But I suppose one could categorize it as such since newspapers and television networks spend a lot of time and money covering it.

Usually, weather coverage is relegated to a small section of the newspaper and a brief segment on the local nightly news. As a result, most people take it in with a yawn. But for those who live near the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, reactions may be different. Especially in the early months of autumn. Why? Hurricane season.

In the last two weeks, there have been warnings issued for three major hurricanes (Gustav, Hannah, Ike). All the major TV networks, like ABC, CBS, and NBC, have really stepped it up as far as informing people on the status of these hurricanes. As of late, all of these stations interrupt regular programming every few minutes to track the coming storms.

If you check online, there is plenty of coverage, too. And not just on a site like the Weather Channel. Almost anywhere you navigate online, there is a link somewhere mentioning the status of these hurricanes. Obviously, weather coverage is being taken seriously by people throughout the country. They hope those in the way of the storms won't have to go through a catastrophe like those who endured Hurricanes Andrew (1992) and Katrina (2005).

Personally, I tend not to follow the weather. Especially when it's on TV--I find it annoying, overly repetitive. But because experts are predicting that Hurricane Ike could be disastrous, I've been constantly tracking the weather right from my computer and I'm thankful there's extensive coverage of it.