Headline today, same as yesterday

In these dog days of summer (trust me, if you'd watch Sam the Wonder Dog start panting at 3 p.m. and go until 8 every night, you'd know dog days) I've come up with something that perplexes - why does the weather report need a third of every local broadcast?

Weather can obviously be news. In fact, people want to know about tomorrow. But let's be honest, particularly in Summer of 2009, tomorrow is a high of 101-103 and a low of 77. Again and again and again. Pretty much, until Sept. 15.

So why not take 30 seconds to say just that and give the other five of telling me for the 30th time why tomorrow is like yesterday is like today to some sort of reporting? Tell you what, just for folks with relatives elsewhere or traveling the next day, I'll give you another full minute for a national report and map.

The methodology of weather reporting seems weak to me too. It's all about the temperature numbers. But it's much more important to tell me how it feels. Right now, we're in a string of triple digits. Weathercasters are all gaga over the prediction we'll go only to the upper 90s soon. But that's because clouds are expected. Do those clouds arise because the humidity will increase? Then wouldn't I rather 103 and lower humidity?

So, here's the deal. Let's make the weather part of the news. If something is going to change dramatically, like a stray shower or even a front passing, we'll give you time at the beginning of the entire program. Then we can go straight from the City Council report to the Dallas Cowboys report (is Jessica in or out?). Except we'll ensure there's time at the end for the anchors who obviously have had enough of one another to stumble and snicker over the just finished video of the skiing squirrel.