When did the weather become news?

When I was kid watching early television, the weather report was maybe two minutes long. The guy -- always a guy in those days -- stood before a chart that told what the highs and lows of the next day or two would be and whether it might rain or snow. He told us what we needed to know and made his exit.

So when did weather get to be its own distinct segment of the news half-hour? Break it down: there's local news, then national and international news, then weather, then sports, then some other story of interest. When did weather start to compete with news and sports for air time?

I actually remember a moment -- but can't place it in time -- when I thought that the news had changed in its presentation. It seemed more chatty, the newscasters sitting behind desks like Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, bantering about this and that, leading into the weather and sports. So suddenly the weather person had a spot that was much longer than before, and he spent the time, as he/she does now, showing maps of the entire nation, with graphics depicting
wind vectors, etc. Maybe even tracking hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Anything to fill that extra time.

At the end of the weather segment, the essential information was shown: how hot or cold the next day and maybe the day after would be, rain or no, snow or no, etc. Those of us who have watched too much TV knew then, and know now, to tune in for the last minute of the weather segment to find out what we really want to know: what's the weather tomorow.

And this inordinate fascination with weather is not the result of The Weather Channel, which many of us storm-lovers like to watch. No, it seems to have been a conscious decision on the part of TV companies to give weather a more important role in the nightly news program. When did that start, and why?

I can think of a couple of reasons. One, reporting the weather is cheap. A few slideshows, a Powerpoint chart or two, and voila! Two, we're all concerned with the weather. It affects all our lives. (But that doesn't explain why we're willing to sit through five minutes of national and even international weather before we get to what we want to hear. Or maybe it does: once we're tuned into the weather, we tend to sit there waiting for the local forecast. We all do it, right?)

The weather is truly a phenomenal backdrop for all human activity. It's also why we're here at all. For the most part, we take it for granted, given where we live, thinking it more or less predictable. That's why we turn on the TV to check the weather, just to be sure all is as it should be. We want to know how to dress, or how to dress our kids, tomorrow.

Sometimes, though, the weather kicks up and becomes a news story in itself. Hurricanes and tornados and floods and massive snowstorms are newsworthy, wherever they strike, and we all love/hate to see the coverage, whether it's where we live or somewhere else.

For the most part, though, weather follows predictable patterns: windy and wet in spring, hot in summer, cool in fall, cold in winter, etc. What most of us want when we turn on the weather on TV is reassurance that nothing weird is about to happen, and it only takes a minute or so to tell us that.

God bless all you weather men and women for doing your best to put on a show for us -- hey, you've got those minutes to fill -- but please just tell me what the skies have to offer me tomorrow and then say goodnight.

Sorry that it's your full-time job and that I'm suggesting it be made part-time (a piece of an hour a night for five nights a week is part-time), but I think the role of TV weather person has been over-rated for a long time. The weather is the weather. For 99% of the time, it ain't news. News is what's happening all around the world every day, and we know less of that because of the attention paid to the weather.

Less weather, more news.