Demystify Vague Weather Reports.

Credit: Metro TV News, Rainwatch.

Language, for its lengthy duration of existence, is a figure of speech, in that understanding of what is said by one person to the other depends solely on the common medium known to the two parties as and whenever information is communicated. This helps eliminate the burden of ambiguity in most everyday expressions in the various languages with which we interact with one another.

For this reason, organizations throughout the world have their own unique means and forms of communicating information to the corporate bodies as would all domestic or educational institutions. The use of special acronyms for communication is prevalent among most Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the world, allegedly, and they are, without a doubt, carefully chosen and arranged in all undertakings for effortless understanding as regards dealings in that particular field of knowledge.

Many peculiar disciplines, ranging from Medicine, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Archeology, Theology, Geography, Accountancy, Economics, Journalism, Law, Sociology, Meteorology, Printing, Publishing, Psychology, Philosophy, among many but to mention these few, have their own preferred languages for communication. This debunks the complexity associated with the broad nature of language, in the wider sense of its use. This choice of special languages help people associated with the various fields of disciplines know what is said, when and how it is said.

For some times past, the meteorological department of Ghana, through the nation’s broadcaster, GTV, used to give detailed information on weather reports and forecasts, which was very informative and educative to all who had the chance to watch evening news and a repeat of the same at late news, before close down. This seems to have disappeared from all media submissions for as long as anybody could remember, in spite of the numerous television stations that are granted the broadcasting rights to operate by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

The era of the yester-years is shamelessly being knocked to the curbs without any regards to cherished values and essence it holds in the lives of the viewing public in this season of rapid advanced technology. The reason specialized languages are used in every field of knowledge is also done away with, in respect to weather reports and forecasts from the meteorological department in Ghana, if I must say so myself. Watching all news coverage across the country, no single television station boasts of a personnel well-vexed in the know-how to interpreting the figures of the weather reports and forecasts, as submitted to some television stations on request or some that happen to stumble upon such numbers, browsing the website of the weather department.

The only time newscasters and reporters think it is necessary to do a story on the meteorological department in this country, Ghana, especially when the story is deemed to blame the weathermen, is when after a bad weather destroys lives and properties of citizens whose various contributions, one way or the other, pay for the livelihood of those personnel who are licensed to work assiduously to make sure citizens do not suffer such ill predicaments; at least not without a fore-warning of the event when it hits them.

It is morally right, without a doubt, for us all to assume the fact that most citizens would have some fore-knowledge of weather warnings per reports and forecasts due to the massive embrace of the technology of smartphones and gadgets by most Ghanaians today. Professionally, it is unwise for anybody to dare such a thought, as the reason someone is employed and being paid, must be unequivocally fulfilled in its entirety. No form of opaque or flimsy an excuse would be tolerated.

The common knowledge that computers, in this era of advanced technology, would make things easier for humans does not mean human aids are not needed to man and supervise these machines to do what they are meant for. Watching a weather report on some television stations reveals clear indication of thoughtlessness, on the part of some presenters and producers, if I must include everyone in my unfamiliar tone of French.

For instance, in the weather segment of some live news telecasts, you see figures displayed on the screens with some icons of clouds in different shades and the average Ghanaian is “thought” of as well educated and informed on what the weatherman’s reports entail. And that the viewing Ghanaian public is also “thought” of to be professors of meteorology the moment and time such weather segments are televised with the display of just numbers on the screens without any weather personnel to break it down to a level for all to understand.

One instance after the recent flood disaster on TV3 evening news was when a presenter, whose name I would not mention here, tried to shift some sort of blame onto the weatherman for not issuing a weather warning prior to the Kumasi flood after it rained for more than half the day since morning. What I asked myself that evening was that should that warning about the weather given, say the previous evening, before the day of the flood, would the presenter have found someone to do the interpretation or he would just put the figures out there on the television screen for the public to guess what the weather was going to be like for people of Kumasi?

I would have written this a month ago but I waited long enough to be sure someone “very thoughtful” would realise this critical negligence of an oversight by all media practitioners across the country, taking no exception for our weather personnel, and do what must be done as and whenever any information about the weather, beit forecast, report or warning, needs to be televised. This used to be done in the distant past by GTV but only God in Makola and Katamanto knows why they had stopped.

If priority plays a major role in what professional news writers, casters, presenters and their producers bring to the public domain, I think some importance needs be attached to our weather reports, especially crucial warnings, to help demystify information communicated vaguely to the viewing Ghanaian public, both home and abroad, and the international media also, keeping eagle eyes on how we perform as a country. I believe, doing this is the only sure way anybody outside the borders of classrooms to the meteorological department would be able to understand the mysterious numerological languages with which weather reporters and forecasters communicate to us through their media associates.

God bless our homeland Ghana and the world for that matter.

The Clerk.