What is it with North America and our fascination with weather news?

[Locut0s]

The whole world has weather and while it's true we do have a lot of extremes here in NA we hardly corner the market on it. We don't experience the monsoons or tropical thunderstorms etc. yet when I turn on the news it seems a lot of the time that 1/2 the broadcast is devoted to weather stories of one type or another. I've lived overseas and the news elsewhere isn't nearly as dominated with weather stories.

[jakeXT]

1. I don't know

[CurtEastPoint]

2. The size of our continent.... inspires things like this...

and

[In_The_Wind]

3. Because driving sucks when the roads are frozen ...

[Locut0s]

5. Yeah but the roads are frozen in Russia and Norway too...

And they don't quite have the same weather fascination.

[Phentex]

4. I think it's because there's not much else going on...

now that Kim Kardashian had her baby and all.

[Blue_Tires]

6. Because it's an "out" allowing lazy media outlets to NOT dig up some REAL stories...

seriously....

[Locut0s]

7. This certainly seems to be the case...

Replace real news with new anchor personalities.

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. Tornadoes

No other place has more nasty-ass F-Extreme twisters with bad attitudes towards trailer parks than we do.

[LeftofObama]

9. Always keep em scared!

Booga booga booga! the big bad weather monster is coming to eat you! Booga booga booga!

Every winter it snows in snowy areas, and every winter it gets cold in areas where it normally gets cold, yet every winter the "news" readers act like this is something that has never happened before and we all should be shocked! Shocked, I tell ya that a snow flake has dared enter the earth's atmosphere!

I never understood why they can't just tell you how much snow is coming and you should prepare for it, or how cold it's going to get and you should prepare for that too. But no, instead they have to scare the bejeezus out of people so they'll tune in the next day to make sure they're still safe.

[tanyev]

10. I like how the weather maps our local team uses only show weather over the U.S.

All the weather ends at the Canada and Mexico borders.

[Earth_First]

11. Personally...

I enjoy weather.

Both watching, predicting and dealing with it.

I live and die by the weather. Literally. It's what keeps the lights on in our home.

However I do sorta see your point. The 'Snowmageddon' graphics and teasers do imply that we've cornered the market on leading mass hysteria in weather related events.

It is, however, better than 'if it bleeds it leads...' reporting.

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. I suspect it started with the settlers - survival was shaped by the weather

.
.
.

Pretty much had to know the weather when trailing through the mountains, or cross-country

Farmer's crops had to be planted and harvested with regards to the weather,

plant or harvest too early or too late

go hungry and/or poor.

Livestock had to be provided shelter in the colder climates, and water gathering/storage was important in most climates.

Myself, living in the bush in snow country - I decide the days I go to town, shovel or plow snow, plant gardens, harvest stuff like tomatoes that one frost will kill and so on.

When I was living with no running water -a rain forecast excited me as I got prepared to catch water in buckets off everywhere I could catch a drip.

Weekly I print out a forecast so I can plan my chores/trips etc. without going online every day to do so.

So I believe our fascination with the weather comes from a very basic need . .

Survival.

CC