An Open Letter to Weather Reporters

I am writing to express my discontent and concern with the language used in radio weather reporting, and to urge more responsible and accurate language on air. I listen to CBC Calgary news regularly and have noticed value-laden language in the reporting of above-normal temperatures. Calgary's unseasonably warm winter and the following autumn in 2016 has...

~1 degree

It's no surprise that with climate change and the recent El Nino, Earth's 2015 surface temperatures have shattered records in being the warmest year on record. It doesn't make the news any less shocking. Check out NASA's news release and website for more information. "This visualization illustrates Earth’s long-term warming trend, showing temperature changes from...

You LIKE spring in February?

Weather news forecasting irks me. The news presenter stands smugly in front of the weather map as if he or she were God, pointing at mid-latitude cyclones with deceptive confidence about the precise timing and intensity of "cold fronts", "prevailing westerlies", or "the jet stream". It all seems a bit dull to me, because despite waving...

The Town Brown

This is the National University of Singapore (NUS)'s Town Green, as advertised on the University Town website. Contrast that with what I saw today. (NUS' management decision to maintain this 'Green' by utilizing 2m-radial sprinklers in the mid-afternoon sun is hilariously futile.) "But hold on, is this not tropical Singapore?", you might wonder. "Why does...