Why the Capital Weather Gang left the Washington Post

Good morning, DMV! It’s Wednesday, June 10.

When I was at the Washington Post, I worked closely with the Capital Weather Gang and with Jason Samenow in particular. I pinged him regularly to ask about storms in our region so I could assign reporters to document the impacts. He and his team helped us stay on top of it.

They are a team of hardcore, dedicated pros. I used to lurk in their Slack chat channel at work — so I could follow developments on inclement weather — and I marveled as they nerded out over the forecasts.

They had a loyal following.

I hadn’t talked much with Jason since I was laid off in February. Then on May 31, a reader (in the Midwest) alerted me that the gang was leaving the Post to go independent. Wow. I spoke earlier this week with Jason, who gave me the lowdown.

“For a long time we’ve been thinking about how can we best serve our local audience? What tools, information and platforms do we need to be able to do that? After thinking through everything, we thought it’d be in our best interest to spin off as an independent company,” he told me on a video call.

Jason founded Capital Weather in 2004 as an independent website. In 2008, it partnered with the Washington Post and became the Capital Weather Gang, led by Jason. In its post-Post chapter at capitalweather.com, it offers newsletters and an app, which you can find in your phone’s app store by searching “Capital Weather.”

Their welcome note yesterday details what you can expect from them. I asked Jason how the DMV can follow Capital Weather; he said they should sign up to become a member of capitalweather.com and download the app. There are three membership tiers, including the free “fan” tier.

“Essential weather will always be free at our website. We encourage everyone to become a fan and have access to our website and get our newsletter,” Jason said. “If you’re more of a hardcore weather person, we have our friends and founders tiers.”

And you’ll still hear them on WAMU with their morning and afternoon forecasts Monday to Friday.

He said the Capital Weather Gang was grateful for its 18 years at the Post.

“The Post helped launch us as a brand and helped us make a mark in the D.C. area as a trusted source of weather information … We became better writers. We became better communicators. We’re thankful to the Post audience for reading us every day, engaging with us,” he said, listing the weather events the team covered, including Snowmageddon in 2010, the derecho of 2012, Snowzilla in 2016 and snowcrete earlier this year.

Operating independently will allow them to design to spec and meet the needs of readers and “weather consumers.”

“This is just us having the opportunity to spread our wings and do more … we’re now evolving into a full-service weather operation rather than a weather desk in a much larger newsroom.”

They’re also thinking longer term, Jason said. “Can we establish a blueprint for a compelling local weather experience that we could potentially expand into other cities? After a year or two, if we can get this how we want it and build a business model, can we expand this elsewhere? Going independent allows us to scope that.”

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This reader pic isn’t from the DMV, but it’s a perfect pic for today’s newsletter about the Capital Weather team. David Policansky, 81, sent this in from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“The phenomenon of rain falling but not reaching the ground is called virga. You can see it anywhere, including in the DMV, but it's very common in the arid climate of the western US. We also have great visibility — more than 50 miles is normal — and wide, unobstructed landscapes,” David wrote to me in an email.

“On Saturday, June 6, there was a lot of virga over wide swaths of New Mexico. I'd been taking photos for quite a while during my visit to the Las Vegas (NM) National Wildlife Refuge, but on my drive back to Santa Fe there was a very dramatic and large area of virga. So I stopped to photograph it from a parking area along Interstate 25 about 45 miles east of Santa Fe. All the vertical and near-vertical streaks are rain, and they're wavy because of varying air currents (wind).

“Farther east some rain actually did reach the ground. Here's another photo.”

I have readers across the country and around the world. Tell me interesting stories. Show me something that made you feel awe. Share your photos from the DMV (or beyond) here.

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