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Charlie Beckett

December 4th, 2006

America – and now the weather…

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

December 4th, 2006

America – and now the weather…

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

All news is local news and there’s nothing more local than weather news. You might think that UK news media is obsessed by the vagueries of Mother Nature but the US broadcasters go much bigger on weather.
I am in Los Angeles for a conference on globalisation but as I flew here I could see vast swathes of the normally parched mid-West under a blanket of snow.
Very beautiful but also dangerous. This morning’s CNN headline news  (and all the other networks) are leading on the fact that O’Hare airport in Chicago is closed so disrupting cross-continental air travel. And three people have died in weather-related car accidents across the nation.
But hang on a minute – this is the first day of December, a month I associate with snow-fall. And three people dieing across America is probably a lower daily body-count than the number of kids killed in High School shootings. It seems that the Yanks are just as surprised by normal seasonal weather as we are in the UK.
But gosh, the pictures are good, and the great thing about weather news is that everyone cares.
More on my adventures in California (sunny but cool) later.

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Charlie Beckett

Posted In: International | Journalism | Research