The Human Suffering Index

     We have yet to get through "our severest winter commonly called spring." Although the meteorologists here have stopped warning us about the Wind Chill Factor, they will soon be sounding the alarm about the Humidity Index. Those at the Weather Channel have only been able to get through these drab doldrums by, either suggesting that great storms are on the horizon, or by showing us terrible weather from elsewhere. My wife has suggested that we need a new index - the Human Suffering Index - which will better measure the extent of our meteorological misery. It offers the extra benefit of allowing those of us who have experienced these dull and damp days to identify as "Victims" or "Survivors" so we can be like everyone else.


 

CODE RED 

     I thought it was just the weather people on the Mother Channel (the CBC for my southern readers) who issued dire warnings about being wizened by the wind chill or scorched by the sun if the temperature was a degree-or-two below or above the number on the thermostat. Apparently, however, the practice of dramatizing the weather is widespread. We prefer our weather alerts to be alarming, just as we want our news to be breaking. Of course, the bosses at headquarters know this, even though most of them aren’t meteorologists. Recently, those in charge at the Sinclair Broadcast Group sent a memo to the stations they own suggesting that labelling most of the Weather Alerts as “Code Red", would surely be a good idea. Ratings metrics may have played more of a role than meteorology in the decision making.


     The weather guy at the Sinclair station in Springfield, Illinois is either a fan of Chicken Little, or a reader of Aesop’s Fables. Or perhaps he is just an honest weather guy who thinks that constantly crying wolf is not in the public interest. The good news is that he told his viewers the truth. The bad news is that he was fired.

Sources:
"A TV Meteorologist Objected to Management’s ‘Code Red’ Orders in on-air Apology. He Might Be Out of a Job", By Matthew Cappucci Washington Post, June 7, 2019.
"More Criticism for Sinclair Over 'Code Red' Weather Warnings, David Zurawik,
The Baltimore Sun, June 17, 2019.
"The Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group has been in the news the last two weeks for the controversial firing of a meteorologist at one of its stations who called out the company on-air over what he characterized as the hyped use of “code red” weather warnings.
But the use of “code red” as described by Crain seems an especially egregious way to use fear to try to drive ratings, and it goes to the heart of what journalism is and isn’t supposed to do."

Post Script:
    The clever quote about spring is from Cowper as loyal readers will know. See "The Dead of Winter."
   My wife insists she thought of the Human Suffering Index and apparently she did. A search found an International Human Suffering Index, but it is unrelated to the weather.

   Speaking of "indexes": A while back, I came up with the "Pajama Index" which indicates that seeing a lot of mid-30s citizens at mid-day in PJs sitting at a Tim Hortons is not a good thing, economically speaking. I searched to see if such an index existed and found one. I probably read the article so some other Irish person likely deserves the credit for creating the PJ Index: "The Irish Economy’s Rise Was Steep, and the Fall Was Fast," Landon Thomas, New York Times, Jan.3, 2009. “Social workers in Moyross refer to the “pajama index”: the more men and women one sees who do not take the time and care to dress for the day, the worse the economic situation tends to be.”
   The sinister Sinclair corporation owns a large number of U.S. broadcast stations. If you are conservative, you should be happy about that.

Canadian Content - The Humidex is a Canadian creation. Perhaps it is yet another thing we should apologize for, in that the humidity is one thing Canadians cannot tolerate and because it gave rise to the too oft-heard whine, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity."