Cable news channels are forever taking guff for over-deploying their Breaking News banners. Dear CNN, please stop terrorizing me with your breaking news banners! pleaded a viewer distraught over the hyping of marginal and ho-hum news developments. Social media polices these atrocities via endless screenshots and killer snark.

Well, network producers neednt worry about defending themselves for a bit, thanks to the peculiarities of Hurricane Harvey: Its projected to stick around for some time. Via ABC News, heres a timeline for the storm as it barrels* toward the Texas coast:

Friday through Saturday: Harvey is expected to roar ashore the Texas coast as a Category 3 hurricane late Friday evening or early Saturday morning. After that, the storms path remains uncertain but it is forecast to meander near or just inland of the middle of the Texas coast through the weekend.

Sunday through Monday: Some forecast models show Harvey expanding across the Gulf Coast as it makes its way over southern Texas.

Tuesday through Wednesday: The hurricane could, according to some models, move northeast and then re-emerge briefly over the Gulf of Mexico before making a second landfall in northeastern Texas or western Louisiana.

Thats one breaking-news storm. With forecasters talking about three feet of rain resulting from the storm and its aftermath, Harvey could well spin off any number of stories ranging from property damage to impact on locals to the response of the Trump administration. We could be talking about this storm, David [Muir], through the next mid-week and beyond, explained ABC Newss Ginger Zee.

*NPR has warned its people that the verb to barrel should be avoided in discussing Harvey:

The Erik Wemple Blog dissents. Where some see a cliche, we see a classic. A storm isnt a breaking-news-worthy storm until it starts barreling.

Read the rest here:
Hurricane Harvey's path to 'BREAKING NEWS' immortality - Washington Post