Forecasting China's next weather reporting trend
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The forecast for the next trend in China's weather reports is Hyper-local coverage, according to participants at the 2010 Meteorology Media Forum in Beijing.
Blue skies greeted the 2010 Meteorology Media Forum at the headquarters of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) in Beijing Thursday. The two-day conference, which commemorates the 60th anniversary of the National Meteorological Center of the CMA, discusses trends in weather reporting.
The forecast for the next trend in China's weather reports: Hyper-local coverage.
"Hyper-local. That means forecasting to right where this chair is," said Pete Seyfer, vice president at the Frank N. Magid Associates consulting firm, pointing next to him. "We're looking for that kind of accuracy in our forecasts."
While news reports may never have the accuracy to pinpoint the temperature around a piece of furniture, Seyfer's message is clear: People want weather reports that directly relate to them.
Seyfer said research shows that American consumers of all ages value weather forecasts more than local news stories. Despite not having data, Seyfer presumed the same is true in China.
Everyone consumes weather, and the "three screen strategy"—the use of television, Internet and mobile devices to access weather forecasts—is evidence of this, Seyfer said.
Severe weather coverage is the number one reason people watch local television news in the United States. So in addition to providing accurate, up-to-the-minute and time-specific information, a meteorologist must help protect people from typhoons, floods, mudslides and other natural disasters.
"It's about being there for your viewers when severe weather is imminent," Seyfer said. "There's nothing more important than taking care of our consumers."
Ian Miller, the senior vice president of information technology for The Weather Channel, said his company has responded to the desire for hyper-local coverage. During the past three years, The Weather Channel developed a forecast system which reports at 50-minute intervals for 471,000 locations in the United States, which has approximately the same land area as China.
Miller, who will speak at the conference Friday, said the United States leads the trend of hyper-local news coverage, but The Weather Channel has plans to set up a similar system in Europe. China also has the appropriate environment to adopt a hyper-local style.
"I think there are great opportunities for people to adopt that same approach," Miller said. "With the population densities and the number of inhabited locations in China, there's a great opportunity to do something similar here."
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