Weather Wars – Battle in the Blogosphere

Three of the four Kansas City television stations host weather blogs. KMBC hosts separate blogs for each meteorologist, while KSHB and WDAF provide community weather blogs updated periodically by the whole weather team. Both stations promote their blogs heavily during their newscasts.

A battle seems to be in full swing between the two main blogs, although it appears to be fueled by the readers more than the stations themselves. KSHB and WDAF each have very different philosophies for their offerings, but both focus on providing background and interesting information about their forecasts and weather science in general.

The biggest difference is that KSHB updates their blog religiously, several times a day. WDAF is less diligent, often going a day or two without an update. It seems that all of the meteorologists at KSHB post regularly, while only some of the team members at WDAF post entries.

The staff at KSHB is very interactive, often commenting on nearly every single post. The forecasters at WDAF rarely provide comments other than their primary entries.

What makes for the most interesting reading are the comments. KSHB is very warm and fuzzy. It appears that readers are not allowed to make inflammatory comments, insult or even question the forecasters, so most of the posts as just feel good comments or patronizing compliments to the airstaff.

Since WDAF has no such rules of decorum, posters daily take the forecasters to task for their blown or inconsistent forecasts or for making statements that don’t turn out to be accurate. Mike Thompson has been repeatedly grilled for nearly two months for saying in early January that the ‘worst of winter is behind us’. Never mind the fact that he never actually made that statement. Many days this blog is not for the faint of heart.

All of the buzz seems to be focused on these two stations, who are routinely number 3 and 4 in the evening news ratings. Maybe it’s because Gary Lezak is a former WDAF alum, or maybe the teams just don’t like each other. Either way, they both provide some interesting reading.

-JNN