LETTER: Heavy weather

I grew up in an era in which I often heard the saying “keep your nose out of the weather” as a warning not to comment on issues of which you know little. Weather forecasters were listened to with a degree of scepticism similar to that afforded to travelling salesmen and guys sitting in the corner of the pub.

This has changed. Nowadays, weather forecasts are based on scientific methods and have a remarkable degree of accuracy. The SA Weather Service is a respected agency and its statements offer valuable information.

Or so I thought until the past weekend. Weather service spokespeople now speak with great certainty in the media about “level 6" warnings, or “yellow level 5”, without explaining what these terms mean.

By now we know what it means when Eskom announces its load-shedding schedules. Level 2 is irritating, level 4 causes anxiety, and anything higher than level 6 denotes Armageddon. But level 6 for weather warnings remains undefined.

It’s all as clear as mud in a severe downpour during Eskom load-shedding.

Andrew Barnard
Orange Grove

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