Bumping an old thread here, but it's like fingernails on a blackboard for me when the TWC on-air people say "ominous looking clouds" so often. This from my first spotter class many years ago -- our instructor was adamant that reporting storms as dark, scary, ominous, etc., was completely useless, since most thunderstorms ARE, and it's an emotional reaction, not a factual observation. They're getting paid for this, so tell me WHY it's ominous (wall cloud, scud, inflow, rain shaft, beaver tail, funnel cloud or ???) and we're good. Got a good chuckle out of one gal's feature presentation (TWC again) on atmospheric heating -- referring to the "libido" of sunlight hitting the earth's surface. She said it repeatedly through the entire segment, and no one corrected her. I was watching and waiting, too ...
