The Weather Channel’s Isaac Coverage

By Nathan Young on September 4, 2012

Last week many people tuned in to The Weather Channel to watch Hurricane Isaac slam into Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Of course being the weather geek that I am I watched a lot of coverage on TV and online. Many people suffered through the high wind, heavy wind, and the flooding. But a controversy brewed on the network when they called Mississippi “landmass.” The Weather Channel did talk about Louisiana quite a bit and some about Alabama but at times it was like they were avoiding Mississippi. Shepard Smith from Fox News was not very happy about this.

It’s a shame that The Weather Channel which is based in Atlanta had to call Mississippi “landmass.” You would think they would know all 50 states in the United States and where they are located. If they know where Cuba is at; where they sent a meteorologist for the first time ever. They should know where Mississippi is at. A Facebook page called The Land Mass Between NOLA and Mobile has over 50,000 fans and it was created after the controversy began. https://www.facebook.com/TheLandMassBetweenNolaAndMobile.

And the Nate and Murphy show from Y101 in Jackson, MS wrote a parody to a Gym Class Heroes song about The Weather Channel Controversy.

In my opinion this “landmass” issue is just one of many things that are going wrong for The Weather Channel. Ever since NBC Universal bought the network the channel has been going downhill fast. The network shows these reality shows about storm chasers, iron workers, or power line crews working which is mostly not weather related. And during their times of live weather coverage the network is doing lots of ads. I miss the times when The Weather Channel did weather coverage 24/7. And the meteorologists on camera were real experts on weather and told the viewers what was really going on. Today when I watch The Weather Channel it looks like the meteorologists are around a campfire singing kumbaya.

I don’t expect The Weather Channel to get better anytime soon. Even on their website during the hurricane they listed 79 degrees as snowfall.

Also during a hurricane please stay inside! This person shot a spiral band tornado that went through his neighborhood. Warning for bad language.