There is no technology, no advancement in science, that someone can't take and turn to a twisted purpose.

Me, for instance.

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time in front of the computer (obsessing is not too strong a word), watching the National Weather Service's radar image, scanning for thunderstorms the way the guys at NORAD used to watch for incoming Russian ICBMs during the Cold War.

In this thunderstorm-ridden summer, there's been no lack of action.

So, I'll sit, glued to the screen, watching the advancing yellow and red blotches that indicate a violent storm so I can dowhat? It's not like I can launch a retaliatory strike. I can look at the "severe weather statement" notice that inevitably warns that the storm "may" include damaging winds, hail, rain and possible locusts. I can take down the deck umbrella before it winds up in somebody else's yard. I can watch the dog run upstairs to hide under the bed. But that's about it. The fact is, nothing has changed about weather since transplanted New Englander Mark Twain pointed out that while everyone talks about it, nobody DOES anything about it. It's just that we get a lot more information about it.

Weather is now on 24/7. Not just on the official government Web site, either. There are TWO cable channels devoted to weather, and it's a major component on every local news station's broadcast. Every one has its own Doppler radar and full-screen displays of the region's weather in real time.

Weather is news

It wasn't always this way. Once, TV stations tended to treat weather as a sideshow. The weather reporter would dress in a gas station attendant's uniform (an oil company sponsored the weather) and point to an outline map of the area with little stickers showing sun or clouds or rain. For years, the only major advancement was when one station came up with little weather icons that were electric. The suns shimmered and the lightning clouds flashed.

Then TV stations discovered what a savvy old editor told me once: Weather is news and sometimes it is THE news of the day.

But TV weather has been going through a bit of a dry spell, as it were, lately. There have been no huge storms or blizzards over the last few seasons, so it's not that surprising that the last few weeks of thunderstorms have gotten the weather geeks, shall we say, excited.

Look, I know the thunderstorms were big news and the stations got to unlimber their full arsenal of weather gear, but I have the feeling that after the broadcast, the weather guys went outside, lit up cigarettes and asked, "Was it stormy for you, too?"

TOM REILLY is a Sun Chronicle news editor. He can be reached at 508-236-0332 or at treilly@thesunchronicle.com, unless he's gone outside to see if it's raining.