The Weather Obsession

AUTHOR: Lawrie Zion

PUBLISHER:

MUP RRP: $29.99

REVIEWER: Mary Ann Elliott

OSCAR Wilde called it “the last refuge of the unimaginative” but a century later, conversation about the weather is almost ubiquitous.

Perhaps it is because it affects us daily in a variety of ways, while climate change, new technical data and meteorological innovations all fuel our consuming interest.

Weather “tragic” Lawrie Zion’s obsession dates from early childhood.

Now a professor of journalism at La Trobe University, Disneyland and Waterworld were not for him; instead visits to the Bureau of Meteorology were a special childhood treat, poring over almanacs and statistics long before computerised data took over.

The BoM has certainly changed its ways of engaging with the public and the media, from a purely scientific organisation to nightly weather presenters.

We have come a long way from the earliest Australian settlers coping with a vastly different environment and climate in which to farm their crops and animals, to satellite and radar installations and increasingly accurate forecasting.

When farmers check the forecasts they rely on them to make strategic planning decisions.

A quarter of our gross domestic product is weather sensitive.

Weather forms the basis for our lives, not just a backdrop, and determines how and where we live, shaping our built environment. It seems the one thing that we all share, and it is still everyone’s favourite subject.

Zion’s fascinating stories about extreme weather, storm chasers and long-term forecasts reflect Mark Twain’s comment in 1892 that “weather is necessary to a narrative of human experience”.