Hey Verne….

Most of you know I work weather support for many college football games in Alabama, and I was, as usual, as Bryant Denny Stadium last night watching the radar and providing updates. So, I don’t watch the games on TV, but many called to my attention the fact that CBS announcer Verne Lundquist was trashing weather people. This was from Mike Smith’s blog, a world class meteorologist who was watching the game from Kansas…

Sounds like Verne was using one of the 10.7 million “crap apps” people have on their phone, that spits out automated weather forecasts based on computer model output only. Or, maybe he pulled up “weather.com” or some site like that. I don’t know where he got “20 percent”… I don’t even use percentages in most of my weather products because they are so confusing.

Verne, you need the James Spann app, which is powered by human meteorologists that understand the people, culture, and geography of Alabama. We don’t have to look at a map to find Andalusia, Eastaboga, Wedowee, Nanafalia, or Benevola.

I got up early yesterday, and it was clear through surface and upper air data, and radar and satellite trends, that we needed to mention a chance of light rain or sprinkles during the game. I wrote this long blog post at 9:35 to let the world now.

All of our blog posts are in the new James Spann app, so those with the app got the word.

I pushed it out those that follow me on social media at the same time… over 107,000 on Twitter, and over 113,000 followers on my Facebook account. Google Plus too, with over 10,000. Updates like this were sent through the day…

I even sent this text message over to Eli Gold and Tom Stipe in the Alabama broadcast booth so they would know…

Bottom line is that those connected with me should have known there was going to be light rain or sprinkles at the game, which happened. And, as expected, the light rain in Tuscaloosa was not enough to measure; only a trace was reported…

So, Verne, next time you come to Tuscaloosa, please don’t pull out the crap app, just download James Spann 24/7 here. No, I can’t promise I will be right every time, but I will beat the automated apps 95 percent of the time. Or, better yet, just come over to my post at the stadium and I will be glad to give you a personal briefing. Will be looking for you next time, so you won’t be giving out bad information, at least about weather. I can help.

Tags: verne

Category: Alabama's Weather, Hodgepodge