The Sensationalized Coverage Of Hurricane Florence

In this blog, I’ll touch on what I’ve interpreted as widespread, sensationalized coverage of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression/Post-Tropical Storm Florence. While Florence has absolutely been the highest-impact U.S. landfalling storm since Hurricane Maria devastated Dominica and Puerto Rico, the media has also been dramatically exaggerating the storm’s effects. There are some fragrant examples of fake news, such this article written Saturday that warns that storm damage could exceed 170 billion dollars, but nearly every major news outlet has been stretching the truth in an attempt to get more views, and with it, more $$$.

But first, let’s take a look at what Florence is actually doing right now. As of 7 pm PDT 9/17/2018, Florence was a post-tropical cyclone centered over northern West Virginia with a minimum sustained central pressure of 1008 mb, maximum sustained winds of 25 mph, and ENE movement of 14 mph. In other words, a blob of moderate/heavy rain (though far, far lighter than even one day ago) and not much else.

Florence will continue to accelerate to the ENE tonight and will really pick up speed on Tuesday as it becomes entrained in a very powerful jet stream and races east into the Atlantic, transitioning into an extratropical cyclone in the process. This jet stream will turn Florence into a powerful, compact, fast-moving extratropical cyclone, and Florence should lash the British Isles, North Sea, and Denmark east with storm-force winds next weekend. A lot can change that far out, but I’d recommend postponing that Loch Lomond vision quest if I were you.

Rainfall definitely didn’t reach Harvey levels but was extremely impressive nonetheless. A weather station 6.2 miles NW of Elizabethtown, NC was the big winner with 35.93 inches of rain from 8 AM Thursday 9/14 through 8 AM Monday 9/17.

Hurricane Hysteria: Overstating the Impacts of Hurricane Florence

You have to try really hard to exaggerate the impacts of a what is expected to be a 17-22 billion dollar disaster (a very rough estimate from Moody’s Analytics subject to change) that has likely dumped more rain on certain locales in 100 hours than Seattle and Portland average in an entire year (35.99 and 37.21 inches, respectively). But the media has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations (and they were high!). Even what I consider to be reputable sources such as the New York Times joined the chorus, saying that Florence “has never been more dangerous” Sunday evening even after it had progressed inland to western South Carolina, weakened to a tropical depression, was accelerating northward, and was no longer even being tracked by the National Hurricane Center.

There is no doubt that Florence was extremely dangerous at that time due to widespread torrential rains continuing to fall over the SE and further flash/river flooding, but was it really more dangerous Sunday than when it made landfall as an extremely large Category One storm and clobbered the North Carolina coast with hurricane-force winds, storm surge, and even heavier rain? Absolutely not.

I watched The Weather Channel religiously as a kid and loved every second of it. After I got home from elementary and middle school, the first thing I would do was rush home and catch the “Local On The 8s” and the ensuing “Weather Center” broadcast programming see what was going on with the weather around the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the country. But unfortunately, I feel as though The Weather Channel has changed from a relatively objective station focused on weather to one hell-bent on making every single weather event seem like an apocalypse. I felt it had been trending this way since I was about halfway through high school, but it really went into overdrive when they took it upon themselves to name winter storms back in November 2012. And nowhere is the metamorphosis more apparent than their website. If you took a look at weather.com’s home page and nothing else, you would think that Florence was the worst storm in the history of mankind when in reality it was less damaging to the US than Harvey, Irma, AND Maria last year.

And there lies the problem. When the media hypes up each storm so much, it’s difficult to get an idea of how the severity of one storm stacks up to another. And this is crucial information for the public to have. By putting scary click-bait and profits that come with it over objective reporting, the media desensitizes the public to dire warnings and makes them less likely to heed them when the next Hurricane Maria or Katrina sets its sights on a major, low-lying coastal metropolis. Overstating the dangers of storms endangers the lives of US citizens just as much as understating them does, and it is incredibly irresponsible for the media to cherry-pick quotes and statistics when lives are at stake.

But while I’ve grown accustomed to the The Weather Channel’s hyping of events in more recent years, this footage exposed just how misleading some of the reporting can be. Here, you can see Mike Siedel of The Weather Channel having difficulty standing in the Florence’s winds (which were admittedly quite strong), but notice the two young men in the background strolling down the boulevard as it it was just another blustery day in North Carolina. Of course, the Weather Channel dug themselves in a bigger hole by saying “It’s important to note that the two individuals in the background are walking on concrete, and Mike Seidel is trying to maintain his footing on wet grass, after reporting on-air until 1:00 a.m. ET this morning and is undoubtedly exhausted.” A lot of the blame is being directed at Mike Seidel here, but while he is not without fault, I believe the majority of the blame lies with The Weather Channel’s producers, who have obviously instructed him to exaggerate the storm’s effects and presumably have the authority to fire him should he not report to their expectations.

I’ve been picking on The Weather Channel here, but these instances of hyperbole can be found everywhere, including my last blog post, where I mentioned that “Florence will likely cost tens of billions of dollars of damage” without any real evidence to back it up. In conclusion, we have to hold ourselves to the highest standard when reporting on events that are a danger to life or property, and this starts with taking a step back and putting perspective above views profits.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your week!
Charlie