Addicted to hurricane coverage?
Weather Channel 12-step groups grow
The recent cluster of hurricanes striking Florida has led to a rapid growth in the attendance at local meetings of Weatheranon, the 12-step program for those addicted to the Weather Channel.
Since the cable network first came on the air 22 years ago, it has provided many viewers with a quick check of the weather during a commercial break from another program. But it has also given birth to an unfortunate and little known phenomenon: Weather Channel addiction.
"I would watch weather for places where I don't know anybody, places I've never been, places I'm not even interested in," says one attendee at a meeting last week at a local church. "I would phone in sick when a hurricane was hitting land just to watch the reporters up and down the coast stand on a beach and tell viewers how dangerous it was to be on the beach. I was addicted."
"Our numbers always jump during the hurricane season," says therapist Mario Sheffield, who helps lead a local Weatheranon group. "But this year it's getting much worse. People are staying glued to the Weather Channel for days at a time, ignoring their families, letting their yards go to seed. It's sad."
Sheffield says he has a study under way to determine the effects of the soporific "On the 8s" music, which plays on a continuous energy-sapping loop during the six-times-an-hour local forecast cut-ins. "Some have suggested that this music releases powerful endorphins that, in some individuals, can lead to addiction," he says.
"We are realists; we aren't asking people to swear off weather completely. If we can just get them to find out whether it's going to rain tomorrow and then change the channel, we'll be happy."
There are currently three regularly scheduled weekly Weatheranon meetings in Nashville, but Sheffield says that sheer numbers are creating demand for more.
"These Florida storms are really slamming us big time," he says. "It's really hard seeing the devastation that hurricane coverage can cause."
(The Fabricator is satire. Don't believe everything you read.)
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