The weather

I suppose with the advent of such social media as Facebook, I am not unique in having friends on both ends of the country. While I almost never talk to them I know what their weather is like. Just by sitting in front of my TV I can watch the ebb and flow of various weather systems as they drift the blue screens of the TV weather forecasts.

A long time ago there was a TV weatherman named Percy Saltzman. I think in fact he was CBC’s first weatherman. All he had to explain the weather was a blackboard and a big fat piece of white chalk. I think I understood as much about the weather when he explained it as I do with all of these complicated computer generated weather models. I think the forecasting was just about as accurate as it is now. I suspect that we were not any less satisfied with what was promised (and delivered) then than we are now.

In spite of our sophistication and access to the weather channel 24 hours a day we are really no closer to understanding at an individual level why the weather can’t be what we want it to be. If one is a skier, (or a purveyor of skis, shovels, snow blowers, snowmobiles or toboggans) there is never enough snow. If one has to do a lot of driving or shoveling and is not a skier there is always too much snow. It is rare to meet anyone who is always satisfied with the weather. But it is common to hear people complain about it.

I use to think that it was a Canadian thing to complain and in some weird way brag about the changing nature of our weather. However this past summer when I was in Washington State, I heard a person from Seattle say “if you don’t like the weather around here, just wait 10 minutes and it will change”.  I always thought that was a Canadian phrase. I suppose it is human nature to want to if we can’t control our physical environment, at least to act tough about it.

At the end of each show, Percy would toss up the chalk. We always waited to see if he would catch it. Usually he did but not always. Perhaps it is old age, but I seem to remember smiling at the end of each forecast when Percy did them. I may now know more about why the winds are circulating in a counter-clockwise fashion – but I seldom smile at the end of the weather. Pity…. I think I need the smiles more than the knowledge.