February, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the workings of TV ratings, is sweeps month. Sweeps periods occur in February, May and November of each year. During those months, national networks, as well as local TV stations closely monitor viewership to determine which programs (and local newscasts) people are watching. From that data, the networks determine which shows get renewed or cancelled, and the local stations determine how much they can charge for advertising revenue, based on viewership.
Local TV stations often put interesting news stories or features on during sweeps months, which they promote during prime time programming. You may notice a trend toward stories that have a "must watch" theme. And, just in time for the weather departments, winter is poised to return to the region. That means that local weathercasters around the northeast will promote long range forecasts of potential winter weather with a bit more urgency.
The latest round of National Weather Service computer forecasts is indicating that a significant blast of Arctic air will be moving into the region by Sunday, and should stick around for a few days. That means that daytime temperatures will likely only reach the mid-20's on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with overnight lows in the upper single digits or low 10's. On top of all that, the longer range forecasts are pointing to a potential winter storm for the 19th of the month. Bear in mind, however, that forecasts that far in advance often change drastically by the time that day actually rolls around, so take those inevitable gloom and doom forecasts with a healthy grain of salt for the time being.
