Don't interrupt my TV

While Todd Dorman makes valid points for local television stations keeping the public informed about impending and sometimes life-threatening storms in his Gazette column Tuesday (April 22), I must take issue with what often appears to be overkill.

"Blowhards who make angry complaint calls when TV stations break into programming for tornado warnings need to get a life," Todd began that column. "And some day, if they're lucky, one of those pesky meteorologists and their super-duper Doppler just might save it."

OK. But three hours? Showing the same radar views over and over, zooming in and out of this area and that, tracking the storm's every raindrop and change in wind speed? Just because you have the technology to do something doesn't mean everyone is interested.

By the way, my wife, Suz, who clicks the remote away from these interruptions with frustration, agrees with me. (Happy Birthday, today, Dear.) I'm sure other people do, too.

Todd refers to Belmond in 1966 when he mentions how the town where he grew up was blown away by a tornado. First off, Todd had yet to be born. (He's 37.) Second, warning systems and television news are miles ahead of where they were four decades ago. Those were the days before super-duper Doppler, when the weatherman used a magic marker (not always magic) to draw weather forecasts and walked outside to see if the "rain rock" was wet.

In Iowa, the weather is more than just a greeting - "Nice Day, today" - it's the way of life. Maybe no one can do anything about it, but everyone pays attention to it.

While weather forecasting still isn't an exact science, it's amazingly accurate thanks to technology. And with the extensive coverage given to weather by newspapers, TV and radio, you can't help but be aware that the weather where you live just might turn nasty before evening approaches. In fact, if Joe Winters says so, you can pretty much count on it.

So, by the time Prime Time TV flashes on the screen, not even a caveman should be surprised that a storm is brewing. But, in Todd's defense, that caveman might want to know exactly where the heart of the storm is located. So, it seems to me, there are options other than pre-empting all of Prime Time.

Television often runs trailers beneath a show for elections, operations "quick find" and the like. What's wrong with that for impending bad weather, as long as the map that goes with it doesn't cover half of the program you're trying to watch?

How about interrupting only during commercials? (It always amazes me how even short interruptions come during the show and that when the weatherman says "we now return you to regularly scheduled programming" we get three minutes of commercials.)

The Weather Channel has updates on the 8s. If you've got cable TV or satellite, as do the vast majority of Iowans these days, you can get a weather update, including a radar view, every 10 minutes.

Turn to the Internet. You're here now. The National Weather Service site has radar. Or you can go to KCRG-TV9's Web site to see what's going on while you watch Prime Time as it was meant to be.