Local Across the 48s, abbreviated as LAT48s, is the name of a community event within The Weather Channel fandom in which members across the United States organize to record the network's Local on the 8s segment at the same time and date.
The first instances of a Local Across the 48s event were organized by well-known fandom members Charles Abel-Lear (The Weather Chazz) and Matt Marron, owner of TWC Classics, as part of an effort to draw in more audience members to the latter's site following a rebrand in 2004. Over the years, LAT48s events were held there and on the TWC Today forums, especially once the two forums merged in 2010. The events capitalized on the wide diversity of how the Local on the 8s segment appeared in differing parts of the country, due to the use of different Weather Star computer units by local cable companies. Once the more visually unique Weather Star units were retired in 2014 and 2015, interest in holding the event began to decline, as did the general outlook of the community for the network. Local Across the 48s events continue to be held occasionally, although with the rise of multiple separate groups within the community following the rise of instant messaging platforms like Discord and Telegram, there is no longer a central place from which the events begin. The last major LAT48s event was held on May 2, 2022 at 8:18pm ET, to honor the 40th anniversary of The Weather Channel. The event was organized by the wxTV Studios Discord server, one of the largest in the community at the time.
