The ability to accurately give weather reports shouldn’t be a gargantuan task

Dear Editor,
I really do sympathise with G. Stoll, who penned a letter titled “Excellent Weather?” in last weekend’s edition of the Catholic Standard. The writer mentioned that (I presume it’s a male) he is a farmer, and maybe a hardworking one at that. He made a valid point about the way our forecasters report the weather on the TV newscasts which I must share in these wider letter columns.
G. Stoll did not find it funny that almost every report on TV the forecasters predict “excellent weather” for the next day, “excellent weather”, according to the writer, meaning sunny weather.
The farmer expressed his disgust with the cliché phrase used day in and day out on the weather reports, when truly the only weather Guyanese could find “excellent” at this time would be countless hours of rainfall, for which farmers like him and his crops would find a delight especially during this prolonged drought.
But what G. Stoll must realise is that Guyana does not have competent people to bring proper weather reports to the nation. Many of them stumble in their speech, their grammar is so undesirable and they are so out of touch of what they do on the nightly newscasts each night, for example, the NCN News. So, maybe that is why the fact that Guyanese are simmering under sweltering 34 degree Celsius heat everyday without a drop of rain is “excellent weather” for them. Personally, the only “excellent weather” for me is a good rainy day. I’ve always fancy rainy weather.
Listen to this, because as we say in Guyana, “this one beat all”. I normally hear things like “chance of a thunderstorm”, and “overnight thunderstorms” on other TV newscasts — yes during this same El Nino period (which is going on for months now). What we’ve had in Berbice from time to time are brief isolated showers and even passing showers because it has been very windy on several days, so the rain tends to move on to other areas. Also, my little knowledge about weather tells me that rain – and I mean a good couple hours of rain, like what we need right now in Guyana — cannot happen with the windy days we have been getting. So, maybe when the wind dies down, that will be a sign that the El Nino phenomenon has passed us, until another four or five years.
In other countries, viewers would normally look for ease in the weather from their weather men and women. “What did the weatherman say today?” they would ask. I’ve written before that our weather reports in Guyana are less accurate than in any other part in the world, even now that we are using less antiquated equipment. Where are the radar reports emanating from the National Weather Watch Centre at Timehri. Why are weather reports still compiled from the Met Office at the airport? Then the Chief Hydromet Officer would reply to my letter to say that weather reporting is not 100% accurate. Well it is 110% accurate in the United States and Canada. You better believe that the weather would be so and so after the weather report has reported such.
Any error can cause citizens of the US and Canada to be in the path of baseball-sized hail, snow storms, and even tornados and cyclones.
Does the population know what the nitty-gritty causes of the current drought we are having in Guyana? El Nino and La Nina are interrelated and are caused by the ocean temperatures. Do they know that these droughts can be followed by intense rains and La Nina conditions eventually? Do they know that some other area on the planet is experiencing the exact opposite effect to what Guyana and the Caribbean are experiencing at this time?
Guyana is a very small country.
The ability to accurately and regularly give weather reports to the nation shouldn’t be a gargantuan task. With the right instruments, know-how, trained specialists and innovative technology, I believe Guyana can do much better with reporting the weather.
Man does not have any control over the weather, although I saw in China they have been sending up balloons in the atmosphere to do something to the clouds which would, in effect, send precipitation to selected areas suffering from droughts especially agricultural areas. But Guyana has a very ordinary weather all year round; virtually sunny and hot and rarely wet, very windy and chilly. If the Hydromet service needs technical assistance, then maybe they should contact the Americans and let them report our weather for us.
Leon J. Suseran