This is not a rant from a climate change denier. This is not a column on global warming and what effect we humans have on it. This is a rant against over-the-top reporting on weather.
I wanted to write about it last month, remember when it got hot and we were all going to fry? But I’d other columns penned, so I thought I’d wait until it all calmed down again.
And it has now all calmed down again – albeit it reared its head again during last week’s hot weather – but only until next time of course, probably winter when it dips below zero for a few days and the hype will all kick off again.
Unless you’ve been living on the moon, you must have read and watched the news, listened to radio about the weather in mid-July? “Over top” does not even come close to describe it in my view.
It was non-stop hysteria. It fuelled panic.
Do we really need to be told to drink water, stay in the shade, open our windows at night? Really?
OK, to be fair, mention it once, but report after report, constantly told us just that, over and over on a never-ending loop.
“Work from home!” they also screamed, much to the joy of numerous individuals. Cue head shaking from many business owners I’d imagine.
Have you tried to get through to the passport office, or gas company, or whatever it is. Why are so many people still working from home due to fears over Covid?
As a nation we are miles behind other European countries in getting back to normal, whatever that is these days. Then, bring on a few hot days and it was yet another excuse to work from home.
Lina, my Russian partner, said to me once: “Why is your country so obsessed with the weather?”
She’s right, we are. It’s always been that way, I guess. I’ve never experienced people in other countries go on about the weather so much. But us, we mention weather all the time, in general chat. It’s a national obsession.
We ask each other on the phone, how’s the weather with you? It’s very much a British thing. I guess that comes from living on an island surrounded by seas and ocean, our weather really is so changeable.
As the old saying goes, “if you don’t like the weather in Scotland, just wait 20 minutes”.
But what happened last month, when the heatwave came, was not just general weather chat, it was ridiculously over the top. On actual weather repots, gone were the past happy, smiley sun stickers they used to use, replaced with red danger signs that actually looked scary.
It’s the same come winter, no longer simple snow signs, but deep blue icy swathes that cover the map of the UK.
Why so dramatic? When did this all start, it didn’t used to be like this.
Regarding last month’s heatwave, BBC, Sky, GB News – all of them, it was non-stop. The weather reports that come on so often during the day seemed to be every 10 minutes, and in between all the presenters talked about was the weather.
I really wanted to switch off, but knowing I planned to write on this subject, I kept watching as expert after expert was wheeled out to tell us to drink water and open our bedroom windows, and believe it or not, stay in the shade. Wow, breaking news there!
Spain had been in and around 40 degrees for weeks. It’s like that every year, but there’s no drama, they just get on with it.
Countries like Spain must laugh at us when the temperature rises, and countries like Russia must laugh at us when winter comes. We simply can’t cope.
We used to be able to. Actually, that’s not true, I think millions of us can and do just that, we can cope. It’s the media I’m getting at here.
I remember long, hot summers. I also remember very cold winters when the lights went out and we had to use candles. I loved it, great fun. And my point is, there was no hype. We all just got on with it. Why? Because it was winter, that’s why!
“Siberian blast hits UK! Colder than Siberia!” scream the headlines in January.
Hardly. It’s winter.
“Scorcher to roast Britain! Hotter than Hawaii!”
No, it’s summer.
And why do certain newspapers, when it gets hot, turn from Celsius to Fahrenheit?
Because 100 looks far more dramatic on the front page than 30 something. It’s all about sensationalism.
“Thousands could die!” I heard this numerous times from various experts last month when it got hot for a few days.
I am not belittling heat, or the dangers it can bring. I’ve experienced weeks and weeks of over 40C when out doing my thing. In Iraq it was 47C every day. Once in Uzbekistan, it was actually 50 degrees Celsius. People adjust.
To quote another old saying, and it is true, “there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing”. Or these days, we may change the last bit to, “only the wrong attitude”.
Be it hot or cold I’ve heard friends say: “But we’re not used do it…”
“Then is it not time we got used to it?” is my reply.
If the weather is to keep changing, we need to get a grip and start planning for it. And stop the hype when it comes, for it doesn’t help.
During the “killer heatwave” it was obvious that we really are, as a nation, not only not prepared for it, we simply don’t know how to behave when it does arrive.
Every news channels showed beach after UK beach, crammed full, jam packed with Brits out in the midday sun. Madness.
You’ll never see a Spaniard sitting out in the hot sun, they know better. It’s called common sense. The get up early, do their work, what they have to do, then come midday, down come the shutters and they stay inside.
Or, if outside, they sit in the shade. They most certainly do not stirp to the waist and go and lie out at 1pm and drink beer all afternoon.
It’s similar in winter. I constantly see young guys in Scotland in January or February, walking around in shorts. What gives? I don’t know. It may not be Russia, but Aberdeenshire gets cold in winter.
Lina just stares at such guys in bewilderment.
On the subject of winter, we are worse than summer. I mean, it hits minus 4 in London with a dusting of snow and airports grind to a halt.
“Ice Age Britain!” the papers scream.
I’ve spent numerous winters in Russia where minus 20-30 is very normal. There is no panic, they just get on with it.
I even spent 10 days in the coldest inhabited city on Earth. Yakutsk. It was minus 48C every day. But no one flapped, they just got on with it.
Be it summer or winter, we handle it all so badly.
Whatever happened to “keep calm and carry on?”
Long gone.
“Flap around like headless chickens” seems to be the new British mantra.
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