No need to panic folks, it’s all to do with the weather we’ve been having lately
There was a spring storm the other evening but from all the media hullabaloo that went with it you’d have thought it was a cyclone.
This whole climate change thing has everyone on edge and has artificially inflated our concerns about the weather. No, I’m not a climate change denier and I hope we can get on top of it and I have faith in the human race, mostly. We can be very clever when we need to be … and we need to be right now.
But we seem to have lost all perspective regarding the natural rhythms of our own weather.
This irks me in a number of ways. One reason is that those of us who are weather nuts used to have the field to ourselves. Now everyone is on the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) website. Mind you they often don’t know how to actually interpret the maps, radar and data.
And now every time we get a storm or a bit of rain the BOM, which has been caught out a few times, gives warnings that reflect an overabundance of caution.
I know about weather and have been studying it since I was a teenager. I was a keen surfer and fisherman and I learnt to read the weather and the tides.
So, I have an edge over some of the people who are misreading the BOM information and going crazy in the process.
I’m different because I’m a fair dinkum weather nut. In fact, I once wrote a piece for Griffith Review entitled Confessions of a Weather Nut and I know some of you reading this may also be weather nuts or tragics or whatever you want to call us.
Now to the storm the other day which was very welcome. It was really nothing out of the ordinary although from the evening news you would have thought the sky was falling.
It was a spring storm. We have them. They come with lightning and thunder and sometimes hail and this is completely within the acceptable parameters of our sub-tropical climate in Brisbane.
And now as we approach summer it’s getting warmer. Is that a news story? I think not.
We have had hot summers before and whilst it’s good to be cautious and prepared let’s keep it in perspective.
Stay informed, daily
As Lance Corporal Jones used to say in Dad’s Army …” Don’t panic Mr. Mainwaring! Don’t panic!”
This as he panicked.
So next time a storm is coming, by all means put your car under cover and take other precautions but remember it’s not the end of the world. Yet.
