Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
WLOSers on Sunday hit us with some predictions of snow for New Year’s Eve, some more old news and not much else. Here’s a quick look:
Will the rain put a dent in the drought?
It seems that every time it rains, WLOSers start their story with this vapid question. Or they do a weather story, and then the anchors look at each other and say, “Well, will this put a dent in the drought?” Then they’ll look over at the weather-guesser center and toss it to Julie or Mike or whomever.
The answer, sheeple, is no. No. NO! We’ve needed more than a foot of rain for months now to get out of this drought. So unless we get an unholy flood, we won’t be out of the frackin’ drought. So stop asking the stupid question. And yet…
Kassandra Pride led the news with her answer. And guess what – meteorologists say that the rain we had won’t “cure” the drought, but every drop matters. That’s insightful. Then Kassandra showed us a close-up of her cellphone and played tape of a meteorologist talking. What was up with that? Guess they were desperate for video.
Speaking of being desperate for video, Russ Bowen came back with a follow-up on how Durham and Raleigh are really dry, and there was endless close-up video of water bubbles in a glass or something. WTF?
Sound the snow sirens: Winter storm warning in effect
The other big story of the night was also weather. Weather soothsayer Lisa Rodriguez told us that the weather will do a “180” on Monday with temperatures dropping throughout the day as a winter storm arrives.
Lisa said counties along the Tennessee border could get four to six inches of accumulation. She said it will be a mixed bag of snow, sleet and ice. The counties she had highlighted for the winter storm warning were Graham, Jackson, Haywood, Yancey and Madison.
Monday, we’ll start at 57 but end the day with a low of 27. The high on Tuesday and Wednesday will be 34, with lows both night around 16. So we’ll have to wait and see, I suppose. Lisa had real microphone trouble during her weather report and ending up holding the little mic to her chest.
In other news…
State troopers will be doing traffic checkpoints to catch people drinking and driving… In a rehashed story, WLOSers told us again that property taxes are due Jan. 7…. The Ingles Giving Tree is still accepting food and monetary donations…. And Saddam Hussein died one year ago today.
Yeah, and not that they should even bother putting up the forecast for the Upstate (why report SC weather regularly when they don’t report SC news??), but she’s been here long enough to know that it’s "the Upstate" and not just some city named "Upstate."
And isn’t it grand that when they need a real live "meteorologist" for a news segment, they always get someone besides one of their own? If, indeed, Cuevas and company are so great, why aren’t they good enough for their own people to use?
Lisa Rodriguez is a friggin joke…she has problems with every segment she does. There’s no way in hell she’s a permanent hire for the weekend weather anchor job because WLOS still has it posted on their website.