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If you\u2019re of a certain age and \/ or geographical location, then you likely rely on your local TV news station\u2019s weather forecast. A new feature on Echo Show smart displays<\/a> looks set to make it easier to watch these on demand. Amazon has partnered with local news channels to automatically surface their most recent weather news videos when you say \u201cAlexa, what\u2019s the weather?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I live in a coastal city with frequent hurricane, flood, and severe weather warnings, and our local meteorologists are by far the best source of info for staying safe and dry (significantly better than any weather app<\/a> \u2014 I\u2019ve tried them all). But tuning in on the 8s isn\u2019t always feasible (especially for cord-cutters!), and finding videos on local news station websites can be a pain. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n With hurricane season<\/a> fast approaching, I was excited to try this feature out. Unfortunately, local weather news videos aren\u2019t in my city yet. But it is currently live in more than 60 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Charlotte, Phoenix, Chicago, Milwaukee, Fresno, Omaha, Toledo, and San Antonio, Amazon spokesperson Eric Sveum told me. He did say they plan to expand the feature and are \u201cconsidering offerings wherever there are local news stations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I was able to test it out by requesting weather in a supported city. Saying \u201cAlexa, what\u2019s the weather in New York City?\u201d to an Echo Show 15<\/a> resulted in the screen displaying its usual forecast and current weather conditions and Alexa reading out the info, but now there were thumbnail videos of local forecasts from multiple news stations along the bottom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The videos don\u2019t autoplay, thankfully; I had to tap on one to start playing. It opened in full screen and started with the time-honored few seconds of news anchor banter with the meteorologist (yeah, I could do without that) before diving into the forecast. On some videos it wasn\u2019t immediately clear when the video was from \u2014 a time stamp would be helpful here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can also access the weather without voice by tapping the Alexa weather widget, which brings up the same information screen. (To add a widget to a Show, swipe left from the edge of the screen and select the Widget Panel). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sveum says the local weather news videos feature is live on Echo Show 8, Echo Show 10, Echo Show 15 devices, and is rolling out to Echo Show 5 devices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n