New Zealand’s national weather forecasting service, MetService, has announced this morning that it will do away with its traditional method of forecasting, which involves confusing graphs and numbers, and replace it with a streamlined forecast featuring a little cartoon man who will either shiver or wear sunglasses and give a thumbs up.
MetService says it made the changes after extensive consultation with the public.
“Here at MetService, we do a lot of rigorous scientific analysis to give quite complex and detailed assessments of both current and future weather,” said CEO Peter Lennox, “and we present that in a lot of different ways that are relevant to us as meteorologists.
“This involves maps and graphs with figures and colours, showing highs and lows, fronts, and little numbers with a circle and a C next to them. You know, the sorts of things meteorologists understand.
“But what we often fail to appreciate is that most New Zealanders aren’t meteor experts, and this sort of data just isn’t relevant to how they consume the weather.”
He explained that, during consultation, the “overwhelming” response from the public was that they wanted “a simple, on-the-go forecast, that doesn’t force them to decipher overcomplicated and cumbersome weather data, such as temperature, or precipitation.”
“So we heard them out on that, and developed something that we think pretty comfortably meets that need.”
Lennox explained that “when little man goes brrrrr, it will be a cold day, time to layer up,” but that “when little man is happy, it will be a warm day, a good day to go to the beach.”
Regional, city-by-city forecasts would be replaced by a single, national forecast featuring little man.
“So when you log on to our website, you’re no longer going to see all that cluttered information,” he promised. “In fact, we’re not even going to measure that stuff anymore. All you need to do is see what little man is up to you, and you’ll be as ready for the day as he is.”
Traditional methods of measuring weather systems and atmospheric conditions would be replaced with the “tried and true” method of “stepping outside to see how it feels.”
Lennox confirmed that the little man – expected to become a New Zealand icon – would be white, but said that was fine, as “so is everyone else.”