Weather Info Today “80- 90% Nonsense”, Veteran Meteorologist Bemoans Media Hype/Nonsense

Top Swiss meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann blasts the quality of modern weather information in Germany, warning that 80-90% of weather stories found in the online media are “false information” or even “made-up nonsense”, and feels his field has become “a hoard of anarchy.”

Swiss meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann. Photo source: https://weather.us/

Yesterday here I reported how veteran Swiss meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann, 59, called the blaming of single weather events on climate change “complete idiocy”.

The quality of weather reporting and information, and the overall knowledge of natural sciences, have gotten so bad in Germany, according to Kachelmann, that he felt compelled to comment at the online Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ). He wrote (link added by author):

 In matters concerning natural sciences, a collective educational precariat rules.”

Meaning: when it comes to knowledge of natural sciences, and especially meteorology, Germany is in trouble, and the citizens are being terribly disinformed.

Excessive, click-baiting media hype

One of the major reasons behind the destructive development, according to Kachelmann, is all the “nonsense” that gets reported by the media concerning the weather.

One example is the often-made claim today that severe thunderstorms or heavy downpours are linked to “climate change”. What in the past used to be just called a storm or bad weather, now gets recorded by countless mobile devices and sent to some studio, where it is hyped and sold as a 100-year event of Biblical proportions.

“Anarchy” ruling day-to-day weather reports

Kachelmann comments how today one often finds weather tips in the German media, e.g. for golfers and mountaineers, but which are in fact “complete idiocy”. Much of the nonsense, the Swiss meteorologist believes, is driven by the media’s insatiable appetite for clicks. “There’s anarchy in the weather report,” Kachelmann writes.

Today every north wind in the wintertime gets dubbed the “Siberian whip!” or every warm summer breeze from the south now gets labelled as a “Saharan heat wave!”, he describes.

Meteorology has become a hoard of anarchy

Kachelmann’s observations are spot on. But we could add that the rush to crank out sensational headlines is not limited to tabloids, but also flagship media outlets and once renowned weather and climatological institutes, who are now getting into the click-baiting, attention-seeking extreme weather frenzy.

For example “renowned” institutes are increasingly linking foul weather to climate change, and warn things are only going to get worse! “We’re toast!” the AP once warned, citing serious scientists.

“80 to 90% false information” …”or made up”

In Kachelmann’s view the field of meteorology has deteriorated so much that he comments at HAZ:

It’s truly a drama: Today 80 to 90 percent of the weather stories in the German online media are false information or often freely made-up nonsense. My science has become a hoard of anarchy.”

He adds:

The absence of knowledge about nature allows every nonsense to be printed — in order to generate clicks — yet not be recognized as such.”

So why has the German citizenry become so weather-disinformed?

Kachmann points to the educational system, where children are allowed to bypass natural science classes at schools. He comments at HAZ:

It is breathtaking what only a few decades and the allowance to skip school subjects can do to a country that, at least in folksongs, was long familiar with storms.”

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Jörg Kachelmann runs Kachelmannwetter.com and, in cooperation with Dr. Ryan Maue, weather.us. He was formerly the meteorologist for flagship ARD German television.

41 responses to “Weather Info Today “80- 9041 Nonsense”, Veteran Meteorologist Bemoans Media Hype/Nonsense”

  1. Bitter&twisted

    Agreed.
    But in the UK it is compounded by the almost complete scientific ignorance within Parliament.
    Only 3 out of 650 MPs have a science background.
    Interestingly it was these 3 who voted against the disastrous Climate Change Act, which commits the UK to ruinous renewables.

  2. tom0mason

    Yes!

    Just as the IPCC said “The climate system is a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.”
    It is also true of many weather events. Our records of historic weather events being only partial and very sketchy in details. So to says that virtually any event is ‘unprecedented’ is to misunderstand the limitations on our knowledge of the past.
    Also of note is that weather research, just like climate research, has not got a single source of unimpeachable knowledge — a consensus on what is thought to happen is no validation of its quality, as neither of them are ‘settled science’, both are continuing work-in-progress, and IMO probably can never be completely settled.

    1. Yonason

      @tom0mason

      That IPCC quote that so clearly you exposes their fraud is just such a gem that it can hardly be repeated too often, IMO.

      1. tom0mason

        @Yonason 17. June 2018 at 4:02 PM

        Indeed, it is for the cAGW advocates, the slap-down that put them in their place when they presume to know how the climate works.

  3. Georg Thomas

    Well-known policy analyst Indur Goklany pertinently wrote on 7. January 2018 this comment here at NoTricksZone:

    “In the 1950s and 1960s, growing up in India, we used to believe Germany was the epitome of Engineering Excellence. Well, what with going all-in on solar and wind, Energiewende, and now this, Germany is now more accurately viewed as the epitome of Engineering Stupidity.”

    https://notrickszone.com/2018/01/07/german-post-electric-delivery-vehicles-falter-lose-power-mid-delivery-route/#sthash.JVQq5Mmr.dpbs

    1. Mikky

      I suspect that German and Swiss engineering are as strong as ever, the problem lies in the non-engineers that end up in politics, education and the media, a cabal that controls policies such as the Energiewende.

      1. Yonason (from a friend's comp)

        CRASH TEST

        The stupid is strong with them.
        https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/news/a31097/german-government-votes-to-ban-internal-combustion-engines-by-2030/

        Unless it’s derailed, then when that experiment with insanity hits the wall, it won’t be pretty.

        Just another e.g., of politicians passing laws that are impossible to comply with…
        https://www.alloutdoor.com/2018/07/02/california-supreme-court-upholds-impossible-gun-control-law/

        What could go wrong?

  4. Roaddog

    I suspect the vulnerability of many people to the unwarranted claims made by the Weather Police results from 1) a lack of exposure to nature, and the potentially dramatic variations in weather which one observes, if the effort is made to get out there; and, 2) a societal over-reliance on experts, who are often wholly lacking in humility, and think their competence far higher than it is.

  5. AndyG55

    OT, Interesting new paper out soon about Antarctic ice.

    Seems East Antarctic is GAINING mass.

    West Antarctic is of course being melted from below by volcanic activity… caused by suburban SUVs and coal fired power stations…. naturally

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/06/15/nasa-glaciologist-jay-zwally-puts-the-hammer-down-antarctica-is-gaining-ice/

  6. Penelope

    Rothschild has a controlling interest in Weather Central. Just sayin’.

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