OK, what are the essentials of meteorology? Meteors, right? So without meteors you don't have the study of meteors, meteorology. No! You say? Come on, you gotta be kidding!
It's about weather? Weather? Hmmm.
Well, OK. In a way that's a good thing because we seem to have more weather than we have meteors. So it's easier to study the weather than to study the rarer stuff like meteors. There is no doubt that there is a lot to learn about the weather. Like, What is it? It appears to be the very definition of change. Really. No one bothers to study it if it doesn't change. No one even bothers to talk about it unless it changes. Then, when it changes you'd think that we would all be thankful to have something to talk about. Nope. Instead of being thankful, we complain. Too much rain; too hot; too cold; too humid; too windy; too dry; too cloudy; too sunny; too foggy, etc. Too [pun intended] all those of you who are sick and tired about complaining about the weather, consider San Diego. The meteorologists in San Diego save up all the reports from last year [so it is said]. On December 28th or so, they photocopy them, put them in a 3-ring binder and recycle them on the appropriate day of the following year. Los Angeles is like that too. That's why the movie industry has camped out in LA. Super predictable movie making weather. Oh, and by the way - not a mosquito in sight. Make all the night time scenes you want, with a bunch of skin exposed...no problem. Sorry, Florida.
Before I get to the point, let me just say that the French have solved the problem of the tongue twisting, polysyllabic, sesquipedalianism in the picture. They just say "météo." Of course we just shorten it to "weather."
Now, the point.
I woke up this morning and noticed that the weather forecast that had been communicated last Sunday was holding true to the fourth decimal point all the way until today, Friday. That's when this thought struck me.
People often ask me, "You've been around a lot. What is the most amazing change that you have witnessed in your entire life?" I usually can come up with two or three real ones that have impressed me and still do. But the fact that meteorology has progressed to this degree of accuracy doesn't usually come to mind. Today it did. After all these years, the kid from the land of "You don't like the weather? Wait five minutes" has suddenly realized that there are reliable weather forecasts. Amazing. The progress has been slow, truly slow, I guess. Then again, 50 or 60 years is not that slow in relative terms. It's not so much slow, as it is gradual. So gradual, that it has been imperceptible to me over the years. I thought it was just a Southern California phenomenon. It's not. Amazing!
Now, we here in Southern California are going to have to wait another 6 or 7 months before we see another drop of rain. This is so engrained in us that we plan picnics years ahead with the full knowledge that the only protection needed will be sun-block and a parasol. We've had one planned for two years now, in the early part of July. I'll let you know if we got rained out.
That prediction is not the result of progress. it's just Mother Nature being herself. The Voice from the Clouds!
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