Weather, you're on my mind.

It was around my brother's birthday, August 13, 2004. I remember because I was at his wife's family cabin in north Georgia. It was midnight and we were watching a 24-hour news cable channel. The host had a substitute. One of the questions that she asked was what the “mb” was on the pressure reading, “Is it megabytes?”

My problem with the coverage though, had nothing to do with their anchor. It was that at midnight it was a taped broadcast from 9pm! This hurricane, powerful enough that it would eventually cause $14.6-billion dollars in damage (note: not damages), had been ripping up Florida all day, and the domestic “broadcast” decision makers ran a taped show. At 9pm, the storm was slamming the Orlando area. At midnight, it was knocking down trees in Jacksonville, but we were looking at it hitting Orlando.

That was then, this is eight years later and I am wondering how far we have come.

Local stations have been hyping Isaac in south Florida, according to my long-time colleagues who live there. “Freaking out the population.” Better safe than sorry, but do it wisely.

There is a tropical storm that is forecasted to become a category two hurricane and make landfall in populated areas. From there, stick with the latest facts. There is no need to hype. The reality is interesting enough.

The information that one needs, including news producers, is readily available online. You can look at regular reports from the National Hurricane Center, every three hours, and more often as it approaches land. They have simple graphics. Perhaps the availability of information sources outside television, especially local, is what leads them to need the hype.

Keep it current: If you are producing the 11pm show, you can get the 11pm update with plenty of time to alter your show. The weather guys know it. The producers and EPs also need to know. Most do, but some of the cable news outlets have been slipping.

People learn to like nerdy weather information. They become addicted to it. They don't want your cliché shots of people buying stuff because you have hyped them into going out and clearing the store shelves. Show them more of the tracking maps, with less BS on the screen with the graph. We know what channel we are watching! Show them the best satellite images and the dance the storm is doing out there.

A word about cheerleading. “Don't.” I got a screen grab of a national weather person writing “Let's get this party started.” In the case of bad weather, perhaps you shouldn't say such things until after you know how the party turns out.

You hear it all the time, and it is understandable, “This is a great storm.” But, keep it real and you won't have to worry about cheering for the atmosphere. See, seems weird, right?

Once this thing is forecasted to be a Cat 2 making landfall in populated areas, whether it ever verifies or not, you have to step it up a bit, in terms of detail, for public service. Remember public service? Break out of your habits. Not all storms are the same.

An Example: On a network weekly news show today, they were talking about the potential impact of Isaac on the Republican convention in Tampa. They went to a beach live shot with their weather wing's reporter. It was a great opportunity to keep his answer, with advanced preparation, about the convention, what's the impact there if the current forecast verifies. Perhaps give a three days out snapshot of landfall forecasts, but why commit on that in the context of that show, at that time?

And as it moves to the northern gulf coast, as it is currently forecast to do, I am sure that we will be inundated with ill-advised copycat bait, on 200 different channels, with reporters trying to get street cred, or remain viable, fake-leaning into the wind, crew members throwing debris in the background so that it flies by the reporter, standing where no one should be.

Then, we'll see the aftermath, and how the party turned out.