20 Lessons I've Learned in TV Weather: # 8 - EVERYONE LOVES WEATHER

I never noticed how much people “small talk” about weather until I became a meteorologist. Suddenly it seemed like everyone was chatting about the beautiful day or complaining that they needed rain or berating the “weatherman” because he got it wrong again. It’s easy to talk about weather over the water cooler since it’s all around us. Weather affects every person every day. The extensive research regularly conducted by TV stations shows that weather is the biggest reason people watch local news, especially in the morning. About every third person I meet tells me how they wanted to be a meteorologist when they were a kid. I also hear quite often about dogs who are afraid of thunder or babies who perk up when they hear my voice on TV. My favorite though is when someone passes me in the grocery store and says, “Hey, where is the rain?” or “I thought you said it was going to be sunny!” I was never sure how to answer that since it usually required more than a one-word answer. Usually, the comment was about something I most definitely did NOT say, but that wasn’t really the point. Long ago, I stopped getting offended when someone seemed to be blaming me for bad weather. I reminded myself of two things: one, they were probably just joking around and thought they were being funny, and two, when anyone says anything to me about the weather it means they know me. They recognize me. They watch me. They associate me with weather. How much better is that for job security than sneaking through the store without one person connecting me to my job?

“The topic of weather isn’t small talk when you’re conversing with a meteorologist.” - Jarod Kintz