Unnecessary Apocalypse Now

I'm starting to have a huge issue with The Weather Channel. I know, I know..it's harmless enough, right? "Your Weather on the 8s" is nothing but informative and convenient. The meteorologists are appropriately perky in the morning and sympathetic during a weather crisis. Jim Cantore has spent years and has finally reached his goal of making weather fun- slash-exciting-slash-scary. He single-handedly made weather "manly" and I say good for Jim--it's obviously important to him. I'm from the Midwest and it's what we talk about. I talk to my mom and literally the conversation opener is "What's the weather like?" With my dad it's not just an opener--it's a running theme in every discussion and decision he makes. Let's just say I grew up on The Weather Channel, watching it as a regular program even before they started producing their own shows. I know. Seriously.

So, you can imagine the ire I have to have to speak about TWC with such strong language and it's over this show:

I just happened to come home and turn on the tv which is usually set to Channel 43 (TWC) and I saw the most amazing devastation in Miami. The voice over was talking about the majorly devastating hurricane that hit the city, crippling it by destroying it's infrastructure and killing thousands. I panicked. "Oh my god...this is tragic," I was thinking, stunned, until I figured out that it was a show about hypothetically what would happen if such a hurricane hit the city. Other episodes include "What would happen if a tornado hit Chicago," "A 8.0 Earthquake in San Francisco," and "A Tornado in Dallas." It took me a couple minutes to recover from my initial panic and then I thought, "Why exactly do we need such a show?"

There's a couple issues here: First, TWC has become a news channel about the weather. They have the best coverage of natural disasters in terms of fact gathering. I trust what they say when they're covering a story (the tsunami would be one example). I don't need them (nor want them) to tell me the horrors of disasters that haven't happened. Second, what other purpose than fear is there to discussing such things? I'm worried enough that my apartment with inexplicably catch on fire or something will blow up outside--I don't need the added stress of guessing what the destruction will look like if a tornado blows through here. Third, the most annoying part of this show is that there's no story of how the places are getting ready for such disasters or if that's even possible. The end of every episode is "and the city ceased to exist, the [insert weather phenomenon here] leaving death and destruction in its wake." That is NOT acceptable.

I've got enough to worry about on a daily basis. If you're going to tell me tales of destruction I can't control or ward off, you can save it Weather Channel. I'll just watch my "Weather on the 8s" and get the heck out of there. In fact, just tell me it'll be sunny. That's really all I want from you.