Meteorological Fortune Tellers

Predicting the future? Try telling a weather forecaster that it ain’t possible. They keep coming back for more. And we keep coming back to them.

Please tell me it’s going to be nice weather on the hols. And if not, please tell me that it’s even worse back home.

So many variables to be accounted for though. But modern computer technology, centuries of accumulated knowledge, and the odd glance out of the window seems to do the job. Mostly those Meteorological Fortune Tellers are in the ballpark.

Of course the weather is what it is: we can’t intentionally change it. Well, not yet anyway. And for most of our needs, holiday makers, songwriters and the rest, it doesn’t really matter a whole lot, in the wider scheme of things.

Different for a farmer. Potential life and death for a fisherman. And for a refugee.

For them, imagining a better future isn’t enough. A bit more certainty would really help.

And as I sit here looking out the window at the rain clouds, in our little holiday cabin in the Netherlands, I can let that perspective change my own particular outlook.