RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33777, 25 February 1975, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

MALAISE

We suffer from a recurring and irritating phenomenon associated with the weather forecast. Research indicates that the phenomenon is widespread in this part of the country. We have given the phenomenon the name “C antabrian Meteorological Amnesia.” We will now attempt a description of this phenomenon.

One turns on the radio to listen to the weather forecast. A voice says “This is the Weather Office.” It then starts describing a iot of totally uninteresting weather about to occur in places like Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Waitomo. One tries to concen-

trate on it, nevertheless, because one does not wish to miss Canterbury. The voice then goes on to deal very undramatically with impending climatic conditions in lacklustre places like Tarankai, Taihape and Eastern Bav of Plenty. One’s attention is now starting to wander. It is impossible to concentrate on the forecast. The mind simply refuses to be bent to such purposes. Try as one will, one finds oneself thinking of things other than what the forecaster is telling one about the weather in Nelson and Marlborough. Eventually, by a supreme effort of will, one forces one’s attention

back to the forecast, only to hear the words, “Otago and Southland. Light easterly breezes” etc. One has missed Canterbury entirely. What is to be done about this? The obvious solution is for the forecaster to read the Canterbury forecast first, but the petty, parochial jealousies of other, lesser northern provinces would probably make this remedy difficult to introduce. The only answer we can come up with is a small, shrill whistle on which the forecaster should blow three sharp blasts before reading the Canterbury forecast.