The Weather Channel dispatch helps boost hysteria over Frankenstorm

Oct 29, 2012 03:12 GMT  ·  By
Meteorologist completely freaks out about Hurricane Sandy in weather dispatch
   Meteorologist completely freaks out about Hurricane Sandy in weather dispatch

As if there wasn’t enough hysteria over Hurricane Sandy, which is threatening the US East Coast and showing clear signs of turning into a “Frankenstorm,” one senior meteorologist from The Weather Channel is painting it as the clearest sign of the apocalypse.

In a dispatch sent out just hours ago, Stu Ostro describes Sandy in the bleakest, most tragic terms possible, painting it as a sure start for the end of the world.

As several media outlets point out, never before has a weather dispatch made such ample use of hyperbole (even though Ostro insists he’s not using any) and doom-sounding adjectives.

A few instances from the dispatch:

“[It] will occupy a place in the annals of weather history as one of the most extraordinary to have affected the United States.

[Will] strike the northeast United States with a combination of track, size, structure and strength that is unprecedented in the known historical record there... A meteorologically mind-boggling combination of ingredients is coming together.

This is an extraordinary situation, and I am not prone to hyperbole. That gigantic size is a crucially important aspect of this storm.”

Just in case you missed the point, Mr. Ostro also uses CAPS to drive his message home. Here is the entire dispatch.

Hurricane Sandy from space:

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