COME RAIN OR SHINE
Dan’s a breath of fresh air
There’s always a lot riding on Dan Corbett and his weather forecasts – whether he’s in the supermarket, grabbing a coffee from a café or commuting from his home in Warkworth to TVNZ’s Auckland offices, there’s always someone who’s got a weather-related quip when they spot him.
But as the days get longer and hotter, Dan admits the stakes get higher when eager Kiwi’s rely on his enthusiastic and effusive reports for their summer activities – and they let him know when he gets it wrong!
“In the supermarket on a Saturday morning, often someone will say to me, ‘I’m going fishing in the afternoon. Will it be okay?’” says Dan.
“Of course, I love talking about the weather. I like explaining it. I try, based on the information I have, to give the best possible information for people planning their day, whatever it might be.”
However, Dan (51) still reckons − in spite of New Zealand’s tendency to have four seasons in one day − that Aotearoa is the best place to spend summer, and that’s what he plans to do.
Of course, he has a little inside information and advice on how to make the most of the summer weather, and luckily for Weekly readers, he’s up for sharing!
Dan says he can understand why Kiwis are so interested in the weather. “There are so many different types of weather on a given day. We’re stuck between the tropics and Antarctica so Mother Nature just mixes it all up and says, ‘Here, have some southern ocean, have some tropics and then I’m going to throw in some juice and that’s just tomorrow’s weather!’
“In the UK, we joke that you walk out of your terraced house, look at your neighbour, point out a spot where a cloud has gone away and there’s a little blue sky and say, ‘Oh, it looks like it’s turned out fine again.’”
So does he have any tips for Kiwi holidaymakers as to where the temperature is going to be the best this summer?
Dan stresses that even although forecasters do their best, it’s impossible to get the weather 100% right all the time.
“Mother Nature is sitting there with one hand behind her back and there are always bits that we might not know.
“What we do know is that in New Zealand, the wind is important. You can be at
New Brighton beach and it’s 20 degrees, but with a northeast wind, off a cooler sea, it can still feel freezing! Everyone in Christchurch knows a northwest wind is warm. In places like Northland or Nelson, if there’s a northerly wind ahead of a weather system, it can be pretty good until the rain arrives.”
The advantage of our changeable weather, says
Dan, is that most of us will have some sunny days. His advice? Hold on – the sun will come!
“Even if you do get a yucky day and think, ‘Oh, this is rubbish’, just hang in there. Some days actually turn out better. Sometimes a cloudy, misty morning means you’ve got high pressure, you need to burn off cloud. So the afternoon might be better for the beach or tramping.”
He and his wife Helen will be staying close to home this summer – coming from the
UK, he loves that you can sometimes be the only one on the beach in New Zealand.
“There are so many places you can go, little out-of-the way places that are just so beautiful, and it’s so quiet.”
Getting the weather right is also very important for his personal safety. He and Helen have become boat owners since moving to New Zealand and Dan admits that neither of them would fare well on the ocean if the weather turned bad.
“We’re not good boat people, so it’s a little bit like, which way is the wind blowing?” he tells. “It’s a little putt-putt boat as well. On some of these beaches, if the wind is blowing in while you’re launching, it can be a bit challenging. So we only go in good weather to a quiet little bay with a picnic and explore for the day.”
The couple have a road trip across Canada planned for later in the year and have done several road trips in the United States before, but Dan says they haven’t been back to England for a while.
“We went back for my sister-in-law’s 25th wedding anniversary a year ago, and maybe we went three or four years before that.”
Still, Dan does get a bit of England coming to him, though.
“Sometimes Brits on holiday – they’re in Queenstown or wherever they are, they’ll flick on the telly and all of a sudden it’s, ‘Oh, it’s Dan, I remember him.’
“They may not recall when I left the BBC, which is actually about seven years ago. The next thing, they contact me through social media saying, ‘You were our favourite weatherman. It’s nice to know where you are now!’ It’s really sweet.”
HE’S WISE TO NEW ZEALAND’S WEATHER AND TRULY LOVES IT ‘Even if you do get a yucky day... just hang in there. Some days actually turn out better’