Categories: weather, australia
Date: 23 July 2006 06:04:10
While away and using a friend's laptop, I discovered the Firefox add-in for AccuWeather: it has now been installed on my PC. The description above comes from Tuesday night's forecast for down here: it gave me a laugh.
On weather and terms, I recall a Canadian friend being amused at the way we used fine in Australia to describe weather: and in sentences as well, such as, "That's fine." He thought when I responded, "That's fine," to his suggestion to go somewhere that I thought it a most excellent suggestion that would be greeted with much acclamation: he thought this odd to a suggestion to watch a movie and he asked about it: I told him it simply means "I'm okay with it".
In Oz, the weather term fine simply means no precipitation and generally not heavy cloud cover: in fact the bureau's glossary page goes so far as to add this note on its definition of the term fine:
In particular note that fine means the absence of rain or other precipitation such as hail or snow - not 'good' or 'pleasant' weather.
What isn't a laughing matter is the severe weather around the world currently. Living down here, it seems odd, and tragic, that so many people are dying in Europe as temperatures go over 30 degrees C: that's part of life here. But perhaps we don't get it reported as it is not such a strange occurence: or perhaps, more likely, our buildings are better built for such temperatures: I doubt they'd be too warm once the mercury got below 0. Regardless, my prayers are with those in Europe and the US as heatwaves continue; China, Japan and North & South Korea as floods and heavy rain take their toll; and of course all those in Java affected by the latest tsunami.
For seasonable weather, for an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times: let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.