Perhaps it’s time to tell TV weather forecasters to wipe the smiles off their faces?


Happy fair weather forecasters

Am I the only one who gets a trifle irritated when TV weather forecasters, with big smiles on their faces, exclaim with glee at the forecast of so called ‘good weather’? Many of us in the city live in flats and apartments with glass facades, without gardens. New builds (and old builds) are glass, glass, glass! Without Air-con these greenhouse apartments doom us to be cooked like lobsters, or morph into a cactus. At time of writing I am incapable of moving because of boiling temperatures.

Phew! Heatwave | Drawing: Lesley Scoble

Summer
Heat


“At time of writing I am incapable of moving because of boiling temperatures.”

Blue skies

Why are the weather forecasters always so happy that the skies are blue (nice colour) with a scorching sun searing down? Giving irritating chirpy reports that we can expect another glorious day? 

Do they all live in houses with a swimming pool that they can’t wait to get away from the studio camera and plunge into? Or a garden with a tree casting cool dappling shadows onto a hammock swaying gently beneath its shady boughs. To recline in? A half read book lies beside a plump cushion waiting. Waiting for the smiley faced weather forecaster to idle away the day reading and swing back and forth in a hazy dream of euphoria at the extreme heat?

Don’t they realise that some of us who live and work from home in the city don’t have a simple escape to retreat from the heat?

Hot City

“…some of us who live and work from home in the city don’t have a simple escape to retreat from the heat?”

Phew! Heatwave | Drawing: Lesley Scoble

The Year of the Burn Up

Don’t they know about the fearful threat of global warming? How elephants, zebras, giraffes etc. are dying in Africa because of the worst drought in over 100 years? Haven’t they heard on the news about how unprepared we are to cope with the rising temperatures? How we are all going to burn up? (saying that, has just reminded me of a TV episode titled The Year of the Burn Up!—from a much loved series, written by Ruth Boswell, called TIMESLIP where I played the role Alpha 17).

Alpha 17 + Alpha 16 | Timeslip | ATV

Timeslip

YEAR OF THE BURN UP


Timeslip is a Sci-Fi TV series—produced a long time ago!—but remarkable in its foresight and relevance to what is happening today.

If I were TV weather forecaster

If I were a weather forecaster, I should not be able to contain myself with joy at the forecast of incoming rain. I would have a grin spreading from ear to ear and be jumping up and down with joy. Imagine how annoying that would be?

Walking in the rain | iPad sketch | Lesley Scoble

Rain is expected


Why does rain get called miserable weather?

Miserable weather

When rain is expected you can guarantee the weather forecasters will put on a gloomy face to tell us we can expect ‘miserable weather’.

I shall now attempt the extraordinary art of Haiku! To try to express in few words, the beauty of the sound of rain upon a windowpane.

Equality and weather-ism

I am not averse to sunshine! I love a warm sunlit day—and enjoy many summer outdoor pursuits. What I am against are the unremitting smiles and glee about extreme, unrelenting sunshine from the television weather forecasters. It is pure weather discrimination. ‘Weather-ism’ needs to stop. Rain forecasts deserve a smile too. Enough of all these hearty smiling, jovial weather forecast presenters every time the sun makes an appearance! Heat is sheer hell! So stop irritating people who can’t cope with extreme temperatures! Consider the feelings of the pluviophiles; the lovers of rain, who find peace and joy on rainy days! Stop smiling about hot weather and saying it’s ‘good weather’. Describe it simply, with equanimity as SUNNY and HOT. 
Remember the world needs both sun and rain. I therefore ask the BBC and the weather forecasters to treat the planet’s natural elements as EQUALS without prejudice. To deliver the forecasts without influence of the personal preferences of the presenters.

It’s raining!

Since first starting this blog post the rain has arrived! The temperatures have dropped from 29° to 12° proving how unpredictable English weather is, and can change in the blink of an eye. The good news about this is that the rain is certain to wash the smiles off the TV forecasters’ faces! The bad news is they will complain about the ‘miserable weather’. Who knows, it might even snow! What might the weather forecasters’ expressions be then?

Watch Gene Kelly singing in the rain — It’s classic proof that rain is not miserable weather!
Now enjoy 38 secs of the soothing sight and clattering sound of heavy rain that I filmed falling on the lake in St James’s Park, London.

Another Heatwave is on its way!

There are warning signs that another heatwave may be on its way—so you can be sure to expect more jolly weather forecasters to deliver more annoying reports such as in the following quotes:

What some weather forecasters are saying

“…the UK can expect temperatures to rise and hit as high as 26C – with the stifling heat banishing this weekend’s drab conditions.”

Birmingham Mail

Drab conditions? Don’t you mean nice and cool?

“Britons enjoyed the hottest day of the year earlier this month when the mercury soared above 28C on June 14, before widespread thunderstorms and unsettled conditions moved in. But, the balmy summer conditions are on course to return early next month as the latest weather charts turn red hot.”

BBC

Britons enjoyed…? Really? There is at a least one Briton who didn’t.

“Pack away the picnics this weekend while the capital takes a battering from the downfall of rain.
But Brits should hold out hope for the promise of a scorching heatwave next week .”

Evening Standard

Hope?

“Temperatures briefly brushed 30C but have since collapsed, leaving many people questioning when their much-coveted weather could return.”

Daily Express

Much coveted?


The second heatwave is forecast for July… now might be the time to go North! I wonder if I can get a boat to Greenland?

Phew! Heatwave | Drawing: Lesley Scoble

Another heatwave is coming…


“I wonder if I can get a boat to Greenland?”

Just saying…

All I ask is that TV weather forecasters refrain from showing their bias and prejudice in their reporting of our weather. To be less infuriating, extolling how much they love the heat. To understand that not everyone does! Perhaps they could try to be more like news readers and attempt impartiality? Perhaps it’s time for TV weather forecasters to wipe the smiles off their faces, and wear a more inscrutable expression? Or, at the very least, be less gloomy when they forecast rain?

Whatever the vagaries of our weather get out there and enjoy yourselves. ☀️ 🍭 ☔️ ❄️ 😊

Stay safe and keep cool!


2 responses to “Perhaps it’s time to tell TV weather forecasters to wipe the smiles off their faces?”

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