Weather.com’s homepage currently shouts out “100 Million At Risk” – presumably in reference to the cold snap about to impact the Southeast. Yet when you click on the article, there is no supporting information for the headline claim. Exactly who are the 100 million people at risk? What is endangering them?

The headline is simply another shameless effort to bait readers into clicking content through the use of fear.

To be sure, the weather system to impact the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast this Halloween weekend is impressive. But there are plenty of colorful and still accurate ways Weather.com could choose to craft an informative and entertaining headline.

Related: Halloween weekend vortex means Mid-Atlantic mountain snow, wicked wind, and winter cold

But instead, despite criticism from yours truly and other digital weather press, it has chosen to stay on the path of hype and fear-mongering.

After I blasted the weather.com headline “Nor’easter Threatens Millions” on Oct. 21, one of its digital meteorologists countered there was a “science” for how Weather.com builds an audience. Good to know in Weather.com’s world “science” trumps good, responsible journalism.

@shawnmilrad @ryanhanrahan @capitalweather Understood. But there is a science to growing an audience. We happen to study that science here. — Nick Wiltgen (@WxNick) October 21, 2014

Weather.com is a large, successful web property with smart people. It certainly doesn’t have to (and no doubt doesn’t) care what folks like me, Gawker weather blogger Dennis Mersereau, and Slate meteorologist Eric Holthaus think.

But maybe it should listen to its own audience. Here are the first two reader comments on today’s offending story (bold text indicates my added emphasis):