There’s a long history of TV stations getting numbers wrong on graphics, often with amusing results. One of the best on-air reactions to a clearly erroneous graphic came from WFAA (the Dallas-Fort Worth ABC affiliate) chief meteorologist Pete Delkus on their 5 p.m. local news Wednesday. While going through a long report about the incredible heat waves Texas is seeing, Delkus noted that the graphic’s stated heat index of 101,105 degrees Fahrenheit (10 times the estimated temperature of the surface of the sun) for Dallas suburb McKinney would not be conducive to the survival of life.
"Everyone in McKinney is dead! The heat index in McKinney is 10,000, what is that, 101,105? It's hot in McKinney!" WFAA's Pete Delkus had a great reaction to a graphic error, starting about the 1:00 mark here. pic.twitter.com/M9h1gmvOcd
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 21, 2023
The whole report is worth watching for the seeming annoyance from anchors Chris Lawrence and Cynthia Izaguirre and then meteorologist Delkus about the level of ongoing heat. And it then gets even better when it comes to the McKinney graphic error, which can be seen beginning around the 1:00 mark of the above clip. Here’s a full transcription of the clip.
Izaguirre begins the clip with “North Texas is currently under an excessive heat warning.” Lawrence then says “Yeah, another day, another 100 degrees. Let’s get to chief meteorologist Pete Delkus.” Delkus then starts his segment with “102! 102. We did it again. And we started pretty crummy this morning at 83. That’s another, we had one just a couple of days ago, a record warm low temperature. The low this morning was 83, the previous low was 82, we did that last year. Last year, on this date, we hit 109 for the daytime high, today we only hit 102, so I’m trying to look for the positive here. The warmest low temperature is 86, that happened on July 18, 2022.”
Delkus then continues into the area map, which has excessive heat warnings (a heat index of 110-plus degrees) for most of the area and a heat advisory (105-110 degrees) for the western portion of the map. “And there we are, this is through the evening hours, an excessive heat warning in place. We still have those very, very high, dangerously high heat index values. West of the Dallas-Fort Worth area and west of most of North Texas, western sections of North Texas, under the heat advisory. That’s through tonight. Now, look at the temps right now. Dallas is at 101, Fort Worth 103, Denton 104, 105 in Decatur, 106 in Hillsboro, 100 in Terrell.”
This then goes on to the heat indexes, and the McKinney line. “Now, Dallas and Terrell, your heat indexes are 107. Everyone in McKinney is dead! The heat index in McKinney is 10,000, what is that, 101,105? It’s hot in McKinney! [Fellow WFAA meteorologist] Jesse Hawila, I thought he was on paternity leave, he’s sabotaging me again. 105 in Corsicana, the heat index in Meridian is 110, so we’ll fix that. Probably the heat index in McKinney is about 105.”
That’s some good rolling with a graphic error there by Delkus, who doesn’t get thrown by this at all and turns it into a funny moment. And while it is undoubtedly hot in McKinney, it’s a good thing that it doesn’t actually have a heat index of 101,105 degrees.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter]
