Weather forecasters on radio and television are always apologizing about the weather, when most of the time the weather’s just doing what comes naturally.
Specific weather patterns occur during certain times of the year. And sometimes each of these patterns lasts a big longer, or doesn’t last as long as usual. It’s not a surprise.
In a region famous for its fog, our forecasters say, sadly, ”No sun tomorrow morning. Maybe later in the day.” Some of us aren’t sad about the fog. Some of us look forward to it slipping onshore and staying around for as long as it wants to. We live in a fog belt. We don’t expect sunshine every morning.
Take the weather in a region that enjoys a full range of winter-related behavior – sleet and hail and cold and wind and rain. When I’m visiting and watching/listening I always wonder why weather people feel the need to complain when they predict more of the same over a period of months. Winters have been cold and wet for as long as anyone can remember.
In southern California, where some of my friends are in charge of reading the forecasts – and where I once handed out my share of same to audiences – whenever much-needed rain appears (and it’s not that many days out of a year) someone invariably expresses eagerness for the sun to return. Southern California is a desert. The sun will be back soon.
The only people regularly expressing surprise at these regular occurrences are weather forecasters.
Ó Anita Garner 2008