2003-02-07 - 9:43 a.m.
WEATHER-WATCH
It�s cold with no snow. And tomorrow? Tomorrow will be cold with no snow. At some point, it will be slightly warmer and then it will get colder again before we go into Wisconsin�s sorry excuse for a spring. That�s all ye know and all ye need to know. And you don�t need some television channel�s desktop weather-watch program to know it.
Besides, everyone wants to tell me the temperature, as though it is news. When I log on to the internet, the homepage for my provider tells me that it is 6 degrees Fahrenheit and that the wind chill is -6 degrees Fahrenheit. As I said, it�s cold. True, it could be colder. We�ve had weeks of subzero temperatures in past winters. But at a certain point, cold with no snow is cold with no snow. Our weather reports are beginning to sound as repetitious as those from Phoenix where they lead off their news shows with the striking news that it is still sunny and warm.
Once, we had humorous weather reports�or at least what passed for humor. I remember the years of so-called humor in weather departments. Some weather reporter in Detroit used to honk the Keweenaw Penisula, that one in Michigan�s Upper Penisula that looks like the rabbit�s ear, just because it was there. Our current weather report alternates between humor and drama. One of the weather guys has some pretend feud with the sportscaster. I�d give you the details except I can�t remember them. That�s how memorable the silliness is.
They drop the humor only for overblown drama. �In Wisconsin, you never know when a storm may strike....� Sure I do. The sky tends to give some indication. If it�s dark gray, we may be in trouble. Light gray is simply the normal color of a winter sky (although this winter has been sunnier than most.)
I do appreciate knowing when tornados may be in the area. I recognize that the storm sirens are a poor indicator in some places. There are places they are hard to hear. There are places that they do not work. For a while, they wanted to set them off for every big storm but then discontinued that plan when they realized it caused people to stop listening.
Still, I usually turn my computer off for big electrical storms. A desktop alert therefore will add nothing to my life. I have no intention of getting a desktop weather-watch program just so I can see advertisements for one of the local news channels.
And for all I know it will start a humorous feud with my operating system�and then where would I be?
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
