Local On The 8s

The Local on the 8s or Local Forecast is the portion of programming where viewers see current weather conditions and local weather forecasts for their respective area on The Weather Channel in the United States. The name comes from the timing of the segment, as the times it airs end in "8" (such as 9:18, 9:28, etc.) and because of the timing of the segment, "Local on the 8s" airs in ten minute intervals.

Before the implementation took place in mid-1995, the forecast was seen either every five minutes or 8 times an hour at various times (more in the morning and less at night). The name was introduced on April 21, 1996 to coincide with a sweeping revamp of the channel's presentation. The Weather Channel filed for a trademark on the name on June 24, 1997. The name has caused confusion in the New York area with CBS Corporation properties WCBS-TV and WCBS AM, as the properties use a similar slogan, "traffic and weather on the 8s".

Forecasts are generated by a WeatherStar machine, a proprietary hardware system in the form of a computerized unit; the machines are installed in a headend and receive the information from the vertical blanking interval of the TWC video feed and from data transmitted on satellite. The information is then inserted over the TWC feed with local insertion technologies. The WeatherStar systems are capable of adding or removing segments shown within the main local forecast segment, with the common exception of the extended forecast, in what are referred to as "flavors"; the forecast flavors allow variabilities in the weather graphics displayed during each local forecast segment, causing certain graphics to appear only at specific times or lengths.

Despite the name, the segment occasionally airs at times that do not end in "8" (such as 9:27, 9:57, etc., usually no more than two minutes before the "8"s in an hour), particularly during original long-form programming and weekday morning forecast programs Wake Up with Al and Day Planner.