{"id":1128,"date":"2014-01-30T16:11:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/mybirmingham\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2014-01-30T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T22:11:00","slug":"an-open-letter-to-al-roker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/2014\/01\/30\/an-open-letter-to-al-roker\/","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to Al Roker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. Roker:<\/p>\n

Pardon the formality, but the folks at Mt. St. Michael Academy in the Bronx would be upset with me if I didn’t maintain it to a certain degree while writing this note. The previous sentence would suggest correctly that I’m a native of New York City, one who can claim to have grown up watching your forecasts on WNBC-TV until heading off to college in Georgia in 1993. I’ve been a fan for a long time and have appreciated the frankness over the years (I’m specifically thinking about our freak snow storm in early March 1993).<\/p>\n

I’m writing not to question your comments about the recent handling of the winter storm in Atlanta \u2013 that seems fairly spot on given the information at hand \u2013 but to question the generalizations made during the start of the 9 a.m. ET hour of Today on January 30 that while probably not intended, lumped many Southern cities together in a broad characterization of the situation. I’m particularly interested on how those comments reflect on what happened in Alabama, where I’ve lived since late 2004. I only wish I could link to a video of the segment in question – it only seems fair. I’ll just write from the heart though and see how it goes.<\/p>\n

\"01272014The image to your left is representative of the graphics used by many media outlets in north central Alabama on Monday evening. As you can see, Birmingham and the majority of its surrounding area was only forecast to see a \u201cdusting\u201d of snow. The area that was predicted to receive the brunt of the storm was the southern portion of the state (mostly areas south of Demopolis), one that received a state of emergency declaration by Gov. Bentley earlier Monday<\/a>. Most of the resources needed to tackle what would normally be a minor mess were sitting well to the south of the state’s largest city \u2013 the area that was eventually most affected. It was an area that was still expecting less than an inch as late as the 5:35 a.m. graphiccast post made to the NWS Birmingham’s page<\/a> on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Are there things that could have been handled differently? Yes. But, in our case, it was a case of Mother Nature making a last minute change and everyone being caught flat-footed. That would be what the folks at USA Today reported yesterday<\/a>, about half way down the page in their wrap-up. The meteorologists at our television stations have been taking it on the chin \u2013 more than they probably should considering part their job is to predict something that isn’t always easy to understand. Among them:<\/p>\n