Prince Charles tries his royal hand at delivering the forecast, joining the ranks of Steve Carell, Ellen DeGeneres, and other A-list weather desk crashers

“This afternoon it will be cold, wet, and windy across most of Scotland,” Prince Charles dutifully informed BBC viewers in a surprise appearance this week. Photo: YouTube

Best Opinion:  Jezebel, CBS News, New York…

“Now here’s Prince Charles with the weather,” says Madeleine Davis at Jezebel. BBC viewers in Scotland were treated to a surprise weather report when Prince Charles dropped by the BBC Scotland headquarters in Glasgow this week and made a detour to the weather desk. But the royal is hardly the first celebrity “drafted to point at isobars.” Here, a look at six celebrity meteorologist cameos:

1. Prince Charles
The heir to the throne was given a rather predictable report to deliver to Scottish viewers: “Cold, wet, and windy.” But he did a charming job of it, says Jessica Derschowitz of CBS News. “If being King of England doesn’t work out, Prince Charles may have another profession lined up — TV weatherman.” Actually, he could have employed more gusto, says Davis. The report was “solid and to the point, but also stiff and slightly unfeeling.”

2. Tom Hanks
When the Oscar-winner crashed the weather desk of Spanish-language channel Univision’s morning program Despierta America last June, he took it upon himself to “go bigger than his weather-crashing predecessors,” says New York. Joined by a buxom weather lady, Hanks danced through nearly the entire report as jaunty music played in the background. It’s all so bizarre and wonderful, that if you “squint, this could be a deleted scene from Lost in Translation.”

3. Ellen DeGeneres
While in Chicago to tape her TBS special Ellen’s Somewhat Special Special last May, DeGeneres stopped by the city’s Chicago affiliate to plug the program — and try her hand at the weather. She delivers “the funniest forecast ever,” says The Huffington Post. Her scene-stealing moment: Revealing, shocked, the industry secret about the digital weather maps meteorologists stand in front of. “There’s nothing back here! It’s just a green screen! It’s all a lie, people.”

4. Steve Carell
The celebrated funnyman, in England to promote his 2010 film Date Night, used a visit to the morning program GMTV to revisit his famous off-his-rocker weatherman Brick Tamland from the comedy Anchorman. Staying true to the inept fictional meteorologist’s character, Carell delivered an impromptu weather report in which he mistook Europe for North America. “It was pretty bad,” says Krystal Clark at Screen Crave, “but equally hilarious.”

5. Michael Cera and Jason Schwartzman
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World duo Michael Cera and Jason Schwartzman stopped by Fox 5 Atlanta’s morning news program — presumably to promote their film — but instead spent a “glorious two minutes of airtime” delivering an absurdly hilarious weather forecast, says The Huffington Post. There was dancing, confusion, an imaginary bus accident… and very little actual weather reporting. “But watching these two goof off is so much more interesting than the highs and lows.” 

6. Gerard Butler
The 300 star isn’t a comedian, says New York, and therefore plays his report “appealingly straight.” On GMTV to promote the romantic comedy The Ugly Truth, Butler was quite charming, says Lara Martin at Digital Spy: “Temperatures will be, I’m guessing — I imagine — lower in the North and a little bit warmer in the South!” What a winning performance.

Article source: http://theweek.com/article/index/227921/celebrity-weather-reports-a-video-roundup

Bill Nye the Science Guy told the Daily Caller on Tuesday that climate change is a bigger problem than the economy or high unemployment.

He also said that “this notion that government is inherently bad is new,” and after the November election, President Barack Obama will “have a freer hand.”

Bill Nye, who was in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday speaking on behalf of the Planetary Society, said that he is “very concerned about climate change,” adding that, “you can talk about the economy and short-term jobs and so on — but there are much bigger problems.”

On the president, who Nye supported in his first run, the former television host said, “He has a lot of constraints until he gets re-elected. He can’t do what, certainly, my parents would have thought were routine things — social programs. This notion that government is inherently bad is new.” Nye added. “Whoever’s in charge can’t do anything about it until after the election. … He’ll have a freer hand.”

Nye also believes that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will become less conservative in the coming months.

“After the primary’s over, everybody can move back to the middle so maybe we haven’t really found out what Mitt Romney’s real views are yet,” he said. “He had to go so far to the right to win the primary that — who knows. Just think about when the guy was governor of Massachusetts — he apparently has espoused very different views. So we’ll just wait and see.”

Videography by Sarah Hofmann

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Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/bill-nye-science-guy-climate-change-more-important-031610391.html

CBS 11 viewer Leigh Taylor took this photo from the Crescent Court in Dallas on September 8, 2010.

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – When Clint Perkins isn’t working as an EMT in Hood County, he’s preparing for the next big storm.

Instead of hiding from tornadoes, he seeks them out. Although he’s been a storm chaser for almost 20 years, the tornado he saw on April 3 scared him.

“Watching this large tornado moving up towards south Arlington,” recalls Perkins, “that’s one of the first times in my chasing that I thought, ‘this is really bad.’ I think my whole demeanor changed.”

Perkins started chasing storms back in 1993 and captured his first tornado on camera in West Texas near Crosby County.

“I was so much in shock that I really didn’t realize I was looking at the tornado,” said Perkins.

He’s been hooked ever since. In fact, chasing even played a role in catching the love of his life.

“When I asked my wife to marry me, it was on video flying with the hurricane hunters inside the eye of Hurricane Wilma,” said Perkins, who notes that the popularity of storm chasing reality shows are prompting more inexperienced chasers to go on the road.

“They’re creating more of a hazard than the tornado itself,” said Perkins.

Fellow storm chaser Jason McLaughlin agrees.

He was in Forney during the April 3rd outbreak and witnessed the devastation as it happened. Mclaughlin teaches math at Summit High School in Mansfield and says his knowledge of the timing of storms is critical.

“Tornadoes can touch down and do a lot of damage in a very short time,” said McLaughlin.  “Even being an experienced storm chaser, you run into circumstances that aren’t the right ones to be in.”

For both of these men, storm chasing gives them a chance to see some incredible displays of nature and capture amazing images on camera, but their higher purpose is to help save lives.

“If I have a chance and opportunity to pre-warn some of these smaller towns, I feel like I’m accomplishing something.” Perkins said.

Article source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/05/07/storm-chasers-help-warn-the-public-during-severe-weather/