Weather Reporting

Kris Wilson

The comic strip begins with a caveman drawing extensive hieroglyphics on a wall with a crowd of bystanders carefully observing. He's explaining in worried tones that days continue to grow longer, Earth is warming up dangerously, and the climate is changing. Then a member of the audience shouts at him: “It's called summer, you moron.” So goes the first weather report—and public reaction to it. Flash forward several thousand years to 1941—one of the first U.S. television weathercasters was an animated cartoon character, Woolly the lamb, who sang the weather report: “It's hot, it's cold. It's rain, it's fair. It's all mixed up together. But I, as Botany's Woolly Lamb, predict tomorrow's weather.” Botany's “wrinkle-proof ties” sponsored the broadcast. One can only imagine audience reaction in that day before every broadcast became the subject of focus groups and statistical analyses. After that, in the 1950s and 1960s, attractive—even “sexy”—women with ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.