Kudos to local TV weather teams for providing cautious, yet straight forward coverage of this weekend's storm. There was no hype, no panic alarms...thank you.
The Maven wants to be clear that local TV stations have invested in people and technology to build credibility and deserve praise for their efforts.
The Maven is not talking about those "internet" or "Facebook" weather charlatans that pop up in our social media feeds, with official sounding names and wild, mostly bogus predictions of exaggerated snowfall totals. These un-trained "meteorologists", sitting in their pajamas in their mother's basements and eating re-heated Hot Pockets, possess no more forecasting skills than the average doorknob.
All that aside, the Maven is confused on exactly how many inches of snow we're shoveling off our sidewalks and driveways today.
Our friends at WANE-15, according to their web presence, says we received "almost" 10 inches and a clean and bright graphic indicating 9.4 inches are covering our lawns.
Yet, our local, and still operating newspaper quotes the National Weather Service reporting 8.7 inches of the white stuff.
Why the confusion? Why not the same number?
Here are some possible explanations:
The totals were "read" at different times.
The totals were "read" at different locations.
The J-G indicates the NWS total is from Fort Wayne International Airport, while the WANE-15 story does not indicate where or when the "record" was measured, nor the source/location of other snow totals in their graphic. A little clarification might help, here.
While we can argue about the exact number, the Maven commends the local TV media for providing good coverage of this latest storm.
