The French Toast Industrial Complex Theory
A funny look at weather hype in the Philadelphia area
Scroll down for previous versions or background and social media history
The Flowchart:
Here's the latest version 3.0 for Winter 2025 tying together the main players and co-conspirators from the Egg Cartel (the ringleader) to Big Milk, Bread Lobby, Big Plow, Big Salt, and more...
This is how the Philadelphia area reacts to snow
The original meme was created with input from several friends on X/Twitter
Version 1
Version 2.6 December 2022
Version 2.7 August 2024. Added Big Car Wash and a few icons. Major players will get realainged in 3.0.
For decades of TV weather predictions the joke is that Philly "is right on the dividing line" between snow or rain/mix so predicting snow totals was inherently difficult. Part of that is because of natural geography, being partway between the trapped cold air of the Appalachian Mountains and the moisture coming off of the Atlantic Ocean. Part of it is because I-95 is a handy reference point running parallel to both and making it easy to use on TV. The rest is a deeply hidden conspiracy at the highest levels ;)
Social Media History:
The hashtag #FrenchToastIndustrialComplex first appeared on Twitter on Feb 8, 2017, by Rich Zeoli (after a couple of years of using the phrase on air) criticizing school closings ahead of a much-hyped storm that didn't pan out.
Eight or more inches were predicted for Thursday. It was 66 degrees out when the announcement was made on Wednesday to close the schools. Philadelphia got 2 inches and the kids off from school didn't even have enough snow to play with. Stores were wiped out and the conspiracy that it was all a clever plot to clear out excess inventory gained more steam.
The list of blown forecasts in Philly is extensive including the much-heralded "Storm Of The Century" in the late 90s calling for snow totals measured in feet that never appeared. There was such a blizzard in 1996.
Other Social Media Weather accounts became quick to make corrections as noted here...
Fox 29's Mike Jerrick and Bob Kelley with Staffer David
1/6/2025 good natured parody of a weather guy reporting out in a blizzard.
Link to video: https://x.com/BobKellyFOX29/status/1876258740627992880
