Here’s a trivia question?
Q: What did my dinner last night have in common with watching TV coverage of Hurricane Francine?
A: There was a lot of spaghetti in both.
Modern hurricane converge now prominently features those spaghetti graphics with the strands representing weather prognosticators’ projections of which way the bad weather is heading. Shown together, the strands are a serving of squiggly lines as though hanging from a fork. According to the on-air meteorologists they are intended to give an idea of what the average projection is of the hurricane’s path. We should pay attention to the middle strands and not take seriously the pasta dangling on the outsides. (I always assume that the outside strands are part of the so-called “European model.” What do Europeans know about hurricanes in our gulf? Although, to be fair, they know a lot about spaghetti.)
This time I realized that there is a new indicator to take seriously. I call it the “Jim Cantore effect.”
Cantore is the longtime field reporter for the Weather Channel who always seems to be the first to be positioned on some beach, right where the storm will hit. By last Tuesday the word was out, Cantore was heading to Lafayette – another blow for southwest Louisiana.
Ultimately, the storm veered more eastward toward Morgan City but at least Cantore’s original destination alerted us to be prepared, plus there was still that cone of uncertainty to be concerned with. Meanwhile, the folks in Houston could relax.
Watching the coverage reminded me how far forecasting has come since the early days of television. New Orleans’ first “weatherman,” as they were called then, was a likeable guy with an education in weather science named Nash Roberts. He made his debut on WDSU TV, Ch. 6, which was the first station in the city so when a storm was brewing, he had a lock on the audience.
Technology was a lot simpler then. On camera Roberts stood before a grease board placed on an easel. With his grease pen he could sketch maps, such as the Florida panhandle. Then he could draw a line showing the possible track from, say, Fort Myers, past Cuba, and then into the Gulf of Mexico and heading to the Bay St. Louis coast or, worse yet, to the mouth of the Mississippi River.
There were no satellite images; no doppler technology; no snazzy graphics; just a guy when a grease pen. His last major storm coverage was of Hurricane Katrina for which on a fateful Friday he announced a change from earlier forecasts. Instead of the storm climbing up the Florida Gulf Coast, it was heading our way. As the tempest neared the Mouth of the Mississippi, we all hoped that Roberts’ grease pen could show a turn to the right, but it never came.
Speaking of forecasters, this was TV’s first Margaret Orr-less hurricane. Now retired, she did not have to worry about rushing into the wind.
There are many new faces in weather coverage now and their tools are keyboards and remote controls rather that grease pens. Among the most senior are Chris Franklin of WWL TV Ch. 4 and Bruce Katz with WVUE TV Fox 8. Their ability to process all the information while showing a dazzling flow of images is uncanny.
Then there are the reporters out in the field dressed in their station’s rain jackets and matching baseball caps making their way to cover the live action.
Watching their reports, I was reminded about what a veteran field reporter told me about hurricane coverage, “I love my job,” he said, “but I am not willing to die for it.” Thankfully, there were no victims. I did see a shot of the windblown reporter bracing himself on an angry beach; apparently still enjoying his job.
No word if he saw Jim Cantore.
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