Are We As Stupid as the Weather Services Think We Are?

I've talked about this before and it still ticks me off.

Decades ago, the weather service deemed it necessary to use the term "wind chill" to make the weather sound worse than it is.
     "It's 1 degree outside but the wind chill makes it feel like 20 below." 

Well for one thing, if it's one lousy degree outside, I ain't goin' out there unless I HAVE to. And even if the imaginary 'wind chill' factor says it feels like 20 below, what are they proving? They're proving that an alarmist term like 'wind chill' can make a humdrum 1 degree sound absolutely terrifying.

Fast-forward a few years...now the weather services evidently think the American public is too stupid to know what the term 'wind chill' means - so they "dumb it down" by referring to it with an elementary-school-level term: 'feels like.'
"It's 18 degrees outside but it FEELS LIKE 10 degrees."
Now how many of us would actually run outside and say: "no, it feels more like nine degrees."? NONE of us.

Summertime is no better...by then we have the weather goons referring to the 'heat index' but still calling it 'feels like'.........
"It's 80 degrees outside but according to the heat index it feels like 90 degrees."

Now - along comes some other weather idiot who has to justify his overpaid salary; so he changes the already-moronic term 'feels like' to the even-more-ridiculous 'real feel.'
"It's 75 degrees outside with a 'real feel' of 79." Right. Like we can tell the difference if we're standing out in it.

What weather "experts" fail to realize is that people have their own personal levels of temperature tolerance. Two people could be standing in a room: one would be chilly and the other would be warm. It's all in the "feel of the beholder." We don't need stupid, trying-to-be-clever terms telling us what we feel.....we KNOW what we feel, thank you.

I remember a couple of summers ago, I was watching the weather on TV. The report comes on, "CURRENT TEMPERATURE, 86...FEELS LIKE, 86." It was at that point I'd had enough. I've never watched the weather again...unless it's tornado season.

Do you get the feeling these weather suits think we Americans are REALLY this stupid? I happen to know we're NOT.

By the way, if you have a few minutes, read this great article from slate.com on the banality of the term "wind chill" by CLICKING HERE.

I've had enough.....for this year.