PANDEMICALLY SPEAKING- Weather and news

One of the many reasons I like living in North Carolina has to do with weather. We can go through all four seasons in a week. That fact acts as big bait for our weathermen. I recall a year when one local station created 'Operation Snowdesk'. I guess giving it a name gave permission for the station to interrupt programing, as I could find no reason  other than that.

"We interrupt this program to bring you 'Operation Snowdesk' doot doot doot do doot do. "It appears we may have a possible sighting of potential snow flakes sometime this season. Be safe out there, folks." or "An anonymous caller tells us they have felt the presence of miniature flake like objects, just moments ago in his back yard." at which time the reporter cupped his hand over his ear."What?" His head dropped along with his voice."You're kidding, right?Oh come on,Ok, nevermind, I've got it"
He straightened up and faced the camera dead-on, " Nothing to worry about folks, we've had an update on our last announcement. Seems our caller was standing too close to the grill and mistook ash flakes for snow."

The thing is when an announcement as simple as 'It appears', or 'sno-anything' comes across the tv, people have already piled into their car and are headed to the grocery to clean out the shelves.  The weatherpeople here in NC are passionate about their jobs to. their. souls.

When we have not had any particular crazy weather in a while, I've noticed the tv team droop a bit. We sort of had a winter without -much- winter this year. Yes, we had some cold weather, and a lot of potential, kids were out of school a lot on the potential side of predictions, as it should be.

I use an app on my phone for quick news updates, so I rarely watch the news anymore, but since this pandemonium has hit, I have started watching a bit again and the first thing I noticed was this-
SEVERE WEATHER CENTER in bright red like a rainbow across the top of the screen. It certainly caught my eye, I can tell you that. I thought I saw a tiny blip, sort of like a wiggly worm line in the lower right part of that red rainbow swath, and when I walked up to the tv and looked at it, I saw in very tiny and thin letters, "We're here for you even when the weather isn't." Succinct yet truthful. Nice.

In the early stages of realizing our viral situation, the reports were all about that. ALL. And it's no wonder. Last night, though, I watched the newscast reveal things like # of bike incidents inside the triad area, automobile accidents are down, walking is up and there is a serious shortage of sidewalk chalk in the area. Along the bottom of the screen ran a ticker tape. ...Donate---sidewalk----chalk----at---this---address---drop--off--chalk---here--blue, especially-- small--child--spotted--running--with--scissors....

Gosh, I'd give anything to have Operation Snowdesk about now. Our world is upside down and spinning all around right now. I do take great comfort in knowing that eventually, when our anxiety itches at the unlikely severe weather instead of  losing people's lives in mass, our news/weather team is ready.