Everybody wants to know what's going to happen in the future, and weather is one of those things. You are always trying to predict the future. Magnetic maps used by TV weathercasters not so long ago are replaced by 3-D graphics that transport viewers inside nasty storm systems. Internet weather sites get more hits than Tampa Bay gets lightning strikes during an August thunderstorm. The weather network reaches 93 percent of all U.S. homes with cable, more than 70 million subscribers, according to A.C. Nielsen.
Surveys show that many viewers watch for an extended period of time.
In a commercial that pokes fun of the network's own popularity, two men at a bar, their faces painted with isobars, root not for sports teams but for cold and warm fronts. Mainstream news has caught on. A tornado that rumbled through downtown Miami a year ago led network newscasts, and the coverage of tornadoes in the Southeast this winter brought the tragedy home to millions. WFOR Channel 4 weathercaster Bryan Norcross, who shepherded South Florida through Hurricane Andrew in 1992, knows how expensive local weather programs have become. Stations throughout the country boast of having their own Doppler radar - which detects rain, tracks wind speed and even bugs.