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Baconaise OP t1_iy50lyy wrote

Now you don't need to watch 3 ads and read a reporters' interpretation of what USGS said they saw on their webcam.

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army2207 t1_iy5cdep wrote

Modern news media shove as much ads as someone is unwillingly take

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__BONESAW__ t1_iy61bkg wrote

The weather guys are even worse. They know their purpose isn't to be constantly present in someone's life so they go super hard on clickbait. Some industries need to just stop trying to be giant corporations and just do what they're expected to and nothing more.

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Baconaise OP t1_iy69yxe wrote

Will there be good weather this weekend? Stick around (watch 15 minutes of fear mongering and advertising) to find out, don't forget we have the most ADJECTIVE radar and that means it's better for some reason. The break, stick through it. We're the only source of information. Put down your phone. You need us. Please come back.

Meanwhile, REAL meteorologists like Ryan Hall's group are setting up actual surge cameras ahead of storms and getting real footage of landfall. "Local weather" is and has been dead.

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pspahn t1_iy6i7yp wrote

I'm sure it was somewhere on Reddit that I saw Accuweather, et al want the NWS privatized or some shit so they can put a paywall between them and forecast data/discussions. Of course being a loyal redditor I didn't look anything else up or verify the claim, so I have to assume it's true.

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BarbequedYeti t1_iy6n2be wrote

It was true. I forget which one was lobbying for it, but yeah. It was a thing. I would like to see my tax dollars go to a decent free app for the US, provided by our government weather service. Seriously. We should have a free kick ass weather app.

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pspahn t1_iy6nr9d wrote

I've used windy.com for some time and I'd say it's pretty kick ass for free.

weather.gov is where I'll often go for extra discussion, and there is an API they provide. I used it to build a very generic 10-day forecast grid for a specific station, and it's mostly functional (sometimes responses come back empty). Weather.gov is fine, but they could definitely use a fresh update on the frontend.

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invent_or_die t1_iy6p14d wrote

Wunderground is good but now owned by IBM. Ventusky is amazing. Both worth buying imho

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RebarBaby t1_iy7066m wrote

Wunderground WAS good. Now it's essentially controlled by the same entities as "The Weather Channel"/"Weather.com"...

I still use it because their 10 day graph is great, but their ads are encroaching more and more every day.

I'll look into Ventusky, I need a less commercialized replacement. Thanks!

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invent_or_die t1_iy79088 wrote

Ventusky is cool for seeing weather/airflow at different altitudes, it's got a lot of options. I have fires near me a lot so its Ventusky and Inciweb for fire information

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__BONESAW__ t1_iy7d259 wrote

Canada had an app that was recently replaced with AccuWeather i believe or maybe the weather network. Fuckin appaling

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KazooOnExhaustPipe t1_iy7glmn wrote

In Germany, the public weather forecast service had to start charging people to use their app because a parasite company sued them to stop them from providing a public service for free, as they considered that to be predatory of their parasitic business model, which was overtaking the same public weather forecast data and slapping some ads on it. Also that sentence is way too long now.

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Tsiyeria t1_iy703px wrote

The last time I looked at the The Weather Channel website, I saw mention of a premium subscription.

Fuck that noise. I didn't even look to see what they're paywalling, I just closed the website.

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rethebear t1_iy7jf2r wrote

"The G Word with Adam Conover" episode 2 "Weather" talks about this.

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Funkyokra t1_iy7n9si wrote

Maybe where you are. Our local weather guy has a solid broadcast and updates multiple times daily on social media with radar and other tools to show you. He was the first one to recognize that a recent huge hurricane showed signs of changing direction in a huge way. He tells us weeks in advance about the weather in Africa that could potentially effect us. He's constantly updating us with new info. More importantly, I have the practical info I need about what time that rainstorm is gonna hit today.

Not a lot of fear mongering on the morning news usually, just a heads up on traffic, who drove into a house last night, your favorite restaurant is closing, and local events. I'm just drinking coffee and trying to find my pants.

Setting up a stunt cam to record landfall is really cool but isn't what meteorology is about anymore than broadcasting in the middle of the street during a hurricane is. It's just a way to make weather more fun so people buy your content. And stodgy old Weather Channel does surge cameras, so while they are fun it's not really a unique cutting edge thing.

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Zee_tv t1_iy6xhmn wrote

This comment made me laugh harder than I have in who knows how long. I sincerely appreciate your comment and humor. I really needed that laugh and to feel this good, even if temporarily, tonight. Thanks again

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phejster t1_iy85gc4 wrote

If profit is the only thing that matters, why wouldn't they do everything they can to get more profit?

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Teantis t1_iy70mua wrote

That's what happens when people are even less willing to pay for subscriptions than they are to look at ads.

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army2207 t1_iy7aanu wrote

Ads are fine unless it takes you 5 minutes of ads to watch a 30 second video

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Teantis t1_iy7aht8 wrote

I mean honestly they're really not fine. But no one's figured out a workable way to get journalists paid other than ads for a while.

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cjlutera t1_iy89iix wrote

Why does this surprise anyone? Almost nobody pays to subscribe to online news now. Reddit just copies and pastes the text into a comment so nobody has to click the link. How are journalists supposed to survive or make money if not by ads? It's the last breath of a dying industry and people complain about it. They will again complain when news is gone or quality goes to hell.

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