Wheather or not
The exception to dumbing down of broadcasting is the weather forecast. It’s certainly become more ‘user friendly’, with little animations and so on replacing cloud symbols, but it’s all underpinned by hard science and the forecasts are supported by the sort of men who have evolved long pointy chins through stroking them while considering ‘is it going to rain tomorrow’?
Forecasting is not an exact science. From the days of sages looking at the flight of birds, through rustic types looking at seaweed and pine cones nailed to sheds right through to modern computer generated forecasts using data drawn from weather buoys, satellites and the state of the chief-forecaster’s corns, there has always been room for error. But the forecast has improved.
Which is why when you see the animations give way to actual isobars, packed close, it elicits the sort of response in a viewer only normally observed when they see a picture of their house on telly with a reporter standing outside it in a flak vest - in front of a tank and dozens of coppers with the word ‘live’ in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and themselves peering through the window and looking back and forth in disbelief at their telly.
Certainly that was the case last night, when the North Norfolk Coast was on red alert. High tides, winds, low pressure systems and a vengeful god all combined to bring the danger of flooding. My immediate concern was ‘will the fish and chipper at Wells be affected?’.
Luckily, last night passed without major watery incident.
But it did mean that, for a while there, forecasts were the centre of attention. I think they are usually exciting anyway. The shipping forecast is pure poetry. Forecasts are important, not just to those who rely on the weather to make their living, fishermen and farmers, but as an island nation to those of us who still have a genetic link to the sailors and land labourers of the past.
Which is why I think that there should be a rusticated forecast. Away with measurement of sunshine hours, the pollen index and the atmospheric pressure. I want to hear that it’s going to be ‘bosky’ tomorrow, with ‘gloaming’ spells developing toward evening. Temperature range, who needs more than: bloody hot, hot, cold, brass monkeys and ‘christ, it’s cold’?
Forecasting is not an exact science. From the days of sages looking at the flight of birds, through rustic types looking at seaweed and pine cones nailed to sheds right through to modern computer generated forecasts using data drawn from weather buoys, satellites and the state of the chief-forecaster’s corns, there has always been room for error. But the forecast has improved.
Which is why when you see the animations give way to actual isobars, packed close, it elicits the sort of response in a viewer only normally observed when they see a picture of their house on telly with a reporter standing outside it in a flak vest - in front of a tank and dozens of coppers with the word ‘live’ in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and themselves peering through the window and looking back and forth in disbelief at their telly.
Certainly that was the case last night, when the North Norfolk Coast was on red alert. High tides, winds, low pressure systems and a vengeful god all combined to bring the danger of flooding. My immediate concern was ‘will the fish and chipper at Wells be affected?’.
Luckily, last night passed without major watery incident.
But it did mean that, for a while there, forecasts were the centre of attention. I think they are usually exciting anyway. The shipping forecast is pure poetry. Forecasts are important, not just to those who rely on the weather to make their living, fishermen and farmers, but as an island nation to those of us who still have a genetic link to the sailors and land labourers of the past.
Which is why I think that there should be a rusticated forecast. Away with measurement of sunshine hours, the pollen index and the atmospheric pressure. I want to hear that it’s going to be ‘bosky’ tomorrow, with ‘gloaming’ spells developing toward evening. Temperature range, who needs more than: bloody hot, hot, cold, brass monkeys and ‘christ, it’s cold’?
Labels: floods, forecast, Weather, Weather forecast
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