Computer and data giant IBM announced today that it’s purchased The Weather Company’s digital assets in a multi-billion dollar deal. IBM is now the proud owner of weather dot com—the world’s most popular source for finding out what THIS! is—as well as several other ventures. The Weather Channel was not included in the deal, and the television network will now operate on its own.

I will be Dr. Marshall Shepherd’s guest on this Sunday’s episode of Weather Geeks on The Weather Channel. We’re going to discuss my new book, the recent floods, and some more interesting topics. You can catch it this Sunday (Oct. 11) at noon Eastern. It’ll be fun!

Not one to pass up low-hanging fruit, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon created a shockingly not-unfunny parody commercial making fun of The Weather Channel for planning to dump their reality shows and shift back to 100% live weather coverage in the near future. As the gruff announcer shouts: “Buckle up, buttercup, because WEATHER. IS. BACK!”

Years ago, The Learning Channel dumped learning in favor of Honey Boo Boo and a family led by a couple that doesn’t know how to just sit and talk at night. The History Channel slowly went from history to Hitler to the Harrisons, and The Weather Channel—once a force so powerful in America that it was the authority on weather—followed that same misguided path, eschewing the perpetual map briefings that turned them into a powerhouse to begin airing reality programs about pudgy beards, people anxiously ogling at rocks, and the foibles of a buncha rushin’, cussin’ truckers.

Smooth jazz. Green screens. Jim Cantore’s hair was on his head instead of his face. (The beard works for him, though.) Weather all day, every day, without a hint of hype or those ridiculous storm names. It was a successful experiment that raised a generation of scientists and likely saved countless lives. Even people who don’t care about the weather admit that The Weather Channel of the 1990s was the height of television excellence.

We’re three days away from the start of hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, and we’ve already seen one tropical storm this year. Tropical storms in May aren’t all that rare, but they aren’t exactly an omen, either. Forecasters expect a below-average hurricane season, but it just takes one to make a mess.

Cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, and Shreveport are under the gun for what could be an interesting bout of severe weather this afternoon, with storms potentially producing very large hail, damaging winds, and strong tornadoes. If you live in the area, make sure you have a way to receive warnings and a plan if you need to take life-saving action.

The Weather Channel is running a brutal multi-platform ad campaign against the new AccuWeather network, throwing the blue behemoth's hat into the increasingly complicated battle between AccuWeather and just about everyone else. Hell hath no fury like weather geeks scorned.

Verizon FiOS unceremoniously dumped The Weather Channel from its cable lineup this morning, opting to provide subscribers with AccuWeather's new 24/7 weather network in lieu of the Atlanta-based weather behemoth. The move comes a year after the network went through an ugly public brawl with DirecTV.

You'll never believe THIS! Or, maybe you will. Between terrible stories and irrelevant slideshows, going to weather dot com these days is a painful chore. The Weather Channel's website is killing the network's credibility, and when it comes to earning a viewer's trust during a life-threatening disaster, that's a dangerous game to play.

Some of the most famous (well, probably the only famous) clips from The Weather Channel's years of coverage are courtesy of Jim Cantore going insane whenever he sees thundersnow during a blizzard. Cantore saw thundersnow six times during a series of live shots in Boston last night, and his reaction is amazing.

Through major hurricanes and sunny days, few media companies have created as much reach, recognition, and unlikely controversy as The Weather Channel. I lived out a weather geek's dream on Wednesday and flew to Atlanta to visit their headquarters for a day, and it was incredible experience to see how they work.

The Weather Channel has laid off 80 of its behind-the-scenes employees over the past two months, amounting to about six percent of its total staff. The company characterizes these cuts as the end of a "reorganization."

Remember when Mitt Romney promised to kill Big Bird right before he lost to his scary, pro-Big Bird opponent? The Weather Channel remembers.

Last week's issue of Bloomberg Businessweek ran a groundbreaking story that weather.com no longer focuses on weather, and that their traffic went through the roof after they started writing "clickbait" à la Upworthy. Who knew?

The Weather Channel's winter weather expert Tom Niziol came to The Vane yesterday to respond to criticism of their winter storm naming scheme as a cheap marketing stunt. In the spirit of fairness and discussion, this post is dedicated to Niziol's (and by extention, the network's) rebuttal.

No credible agency in the United States names winter storms. That being said, The Weather Channel sent out a press release this morning announcing this year’s list of winter storm names. The project continues the network’s incredibly clever viewer-run advertising campaign.

Bloomberg reports that the companies that own The Weather Channel—including Bain Capital, Blackstone, and NBC Universal—appear to be in the beginning stages of talks to sell the Atlanta-based weather behemoth. The question is: who would buy it? Let's speculate!

The Weather Channel recently published an article outlining nine major events that the rising class of 2018 is too young to remember. What nerve. Here are five more events this year's college freshmen were born too late to recall. You're going to feel so old!