Special of the Day is the weather
BUG GUTS & BEAUTY
Weather is a fickle but wonderful conversation starter. It changes and people all over have something to say. Just stop in at the diner in Mapleton. Over fresh coffee and real homemade donuts the chief topic is … weather! Either for or against the weather of the moment, it fascinates and drives the conversation.
Spot a snowflake in July and tongues will flap. Fifty thousand-foot thunder clouds, black as midnight and the talk turns to the land-speed record for mowing the lawn before the rain hits. True excitement best served with a fresh donut and coffee.
Incredulity is part of the news business. Skepticism abounds when people wonder why the emperor is wearing his skin suit. The two tools provide us with news and thus the importance of the “Why” question.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, WAGM offered local weather forecasts prepared by meteorologist Steve Miller. Using two big fabric maps under glass and some tempera paint Mr. Miller was able to present a solid, erudite local forecast that told one whether to take an umbrella or buy a boat. At a time when the technology was primitive, viewers were still given an informative report on the past, present, and future of the day’s weather.
This is the time of the three H’s of summer: Hot, hazy, and humid. Even dinosaurs experienced this effect. When these conditions exist then thunder and lightning result. Between volcanoes, earthquakes, and other dinosaurs there were probably a few thunderstorms and lightning bolts to make life interesting.
It came as a chalk-screeching non event for the local weathercast to expend so much time on the color of the material on display in the maps. There were orange roadways, orange boxes, red, purple, yellow, blue white and green. Many colors and many bruises on the face of Maine. While viewers were treated to rambling discourses on how to identify these features a massive black thundercloud was building up over the Portage Lake/Castle Hill area clearly visible from the WAGM location. Viewers were told to post their observations on social media. That is fine if you are connected. It does little to enlighten the audience that is not online or not connected.
Not a single camera, iPhone, or chalkboard drawing to show the audience what was taking place outside the studios. Incredulous is a mild adjective. Why is it that for all the technology at WAGM it can not show a picture of turmoil in the sky?
If the weather is going to dominate the news program, where be the picture of the weather at the moment? Instead of hounding the viewers to be sky aware would the message be more succinct by showing the sky. Cheap cliches do little to inform viewers. Windy exhortations about colors on a map are very useful when being deluged by a few molecules of H2O.
In this instance the weather gods are nekkid and no one will believe it until they see a picture. Show the weather. Meanwhile enjoy the donuts and Joe.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After 20 years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
