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Today will be fine.
But wait: fine as in 'OK', fine as in 'really rather good', or fine as in 'no precipitation'? When you're a TV weather forecaster, you have to deal with the mismatch of your specialist vocabulary with that of the meteorological laypeople watching - as well as cover all the weather across a whole country, translate conditions into something the viewer can identify with, and warn people about cyclones without making them too panicked. (Or not panicked enough - do take sensible cyclone precautions, people!)
Nate Byrne, who presents the weather for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's News Breakfast, breezes in to shower us with meteorological knowledge.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Get your technical definitions sorted with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's useful list of weather words - they have a pretty thorough glossary as well.
Search the World Meteorological Organisation's Meteoterms.
The origin of weather forecasts - or ‘weather prophecies’ as they were cynically known at the start - is really quite sad. Content note: suicide.
'The Hurricane' by Radiotopian comrades The Heart is a beautiful, ingenious little story of a stormy romance.
The Allusionist episode about small talk contemplates why we (or at least we Brits) talk about the weather so much.
For my birthday this year, my husband took us to an umbrella-making workshop and it was VERY FUN. Also I've managed not to lose or break the umbrella I made in the two months since, which is a personal best.
The transcript of this episode is at theallusionist.org/transcripts/warm-front.
Check theallusionist.org/events for tickets to Allusionist live shows in the next few weeks in Perth, Australia, and Auckland & Wellington, New Zealand.
Northern Hemisphere: you're next.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
nyctophobia
CREDITS:
Nate Byrne is a science communicator, meteorologist and weather presenter for ABC News Breakfast. Find him on Twitter @SciNate.
This episode was produced by me and Martin Austwick, who also composes all the music for the show. You can hear his songs under the name Pale Bird.
Find me on the socials: facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/helenzaltzman.
Further listening: I'm talking about language on the latest episode of Getting Curious, the podcast hosted by your imaginary best friend, Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye.
