Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Change in the Weather...

Did anyone catch the new-style weather forecast on PM yesterday, or indeed on Today this morning? It struck me as a huge, long overdue improvement, replacing the grand narrative of UK weather with the information we actually want - i.e. what the weather's going to be like where we are. A bit tricky for those living in marginal areas, true - and the forecast will be no more reliable than before - but at least we can just keep an ear cocked for the bit of the story that affects us, and not have to try to concentrate through some grand saga beginning in the Outer Hebrides and taking a leisurely tour of the provinces before alighting on anywhere people actually live - by which time concentration, even consciousness, are long gone. This morning's forecast even began with the South East! How un-PC, how un-BBC is that? I could hardly believe my ears. And I was able to think of other things (or, more precisely, nothing) for the rest of the forecast. It seems not all change is for the worse, after all.
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3 comments:

  1. Mark13 October 2009 at 16:30

    Change which sounds a bit extreme to me. Where's your sense of drama and excitement? The weather is a grand narrative and a grand saga; weather system span many hundreds or thousands of miles and many contain more stored energy that we can possibly imagine. I may like to know what the weather will do doing overhead tomorrow, but I also love to be given enough information to imagine what it may be like for the crew of a boat off Rockall or in Biscay or for the men on a mountainside in the Highlands. Without this bigger picture, I think we'll lose our sense of adventure and the world will shrink down just to our own little patch.

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  2. Brit13 October 2009 at 22:23

    The Grand Narrative is ok on the TV because you can see the clouds heading to your house, but on the radio you tend to lose the Plot a bit.

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  3. Anonymous14 October 2009 at 10:07

    I don't notice clouds on TV. They always seem to talk in terms of "fronts" coming in, which can be much more unsettling. I always enjoy watching the weather on American TV and hearing warnings that a cold front is coming down from Canada. One can feel the sense of fear and forboding gripping the Republic, as if they were being forewarned of a Viking invasion. It makes a man proud.

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