page_title: Weather media in the United States
section_title: Sensationalism and hype
hierarchical_section_title: Weather media in the United States / Sensationalism and hype
context_page_description: The weather media in the United States includes coverage of weather and weather forecasting by farmers' almanacs, newspapers, radio, television stations, and the internet. Farmers' Almanacs have taken a stab at forecasting for the following year or so for around two centuries. At first, weather media included reporting on past events, with forecasting playing a role from the late 19th century onward. Weather-related information proliferated to near real-time after the invention of the telegraph. Radio and satellite broadcasts made weather-related communication ever quicker, with the World Wide Web making broadcasting and reporting nearly instantaneous.
  By the 1990s, sensationalism played a role in large weather coverage. Hyping weather, especially winter weather, has become a major marketing tool in media. One of the biggest angles of weather sensationalism and hype is the winter season in the heavily populated I-95 corridor from Richmond, Virginia to the Tri-state area. Some scientists have noted that in a region that climatologically sees infrequent snow, there is a non-stop hype of winter weather from late November through March.
context_section_description: In 1954 and 1955, hurricane-related news cracked the top ten news items of the year, due to the busy hurricane seasons along the East coast.  As nightly network news broadcasts featured weather-related items more prominently within their newscasts – from outside the top 10 news items in the late 1980s and early 1990s to the fourth most-covered item by 1998 – concerns were raised concerning media hype and sensationalism in 2000. Those involved in the discussion agreed on the need to work in a more coordinated manner between the media, government weather organizations, and emergency managers. A series of tropical cyclone-related events in the state of Florida, with the media showing bumper-to-bumper traffic, empty store shelves, and unofficial evacuation announcements, led to public confusion and an overloading of emergency responders located away from the location of significant impact. Reporters made independent extrapolations based on disparate reports to guess when local bridges would close. A concentration on the current strength of Hurricane Floyd, rather than its expected track and weakening farther up the coastline, led to mass evacuations within Florida which were unnecessary. Attempts to correct misperceptions amongst local media went nowhere, as reporters had left the scene, looking for areas of more significant impact.
caption: Satellite images of Hurricane Floyd led to a mass public evacuation of Florida, seven years after Hurricane Andrew. This image is a visual comparison of Hurricanes Floyd and Andrew while at similar positions and nearly identical intensities
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