Barometric Depression
June 12, 2007
One would think that experienced weather forecasters can tell east from west. In a vaguely poetic world of seasonal showers and sunny intervals, barometric depression and abundance of moisture, the cardinal compass points are so basic that even nervous beginners usually get them right.
German TV viewers were therefore particularly stunned last week as they watched ARD public television's usually composed and very experienced Claudia Kleinert throw an unexpected tantrum after announcing that the clouds would be coming from both the east and the west that day.
"Man, what's going on?," Kleinert shouted and banged her hands on her thighs. "Am I stupid, or what?"
The network went immediately to a commercial break and a few moments later, Kleinert resumed her report as if nothing had happened.
Mystery unravels
Kleinert, 38, told Bild newspaper over the weekend that Thursday's forecast had been pre-taped because she was on medication and she worried that she would blunder during her report.
"I was just mad at myself for getting it wrong three times in a row," Kleinert said. "The clouds were only coming from the east."
It's not necessarily clear why people like to know where their clouds are coming from, but apparently they do. Or, at least, that's what weather forecasters have been deluding themselves about for years.
Even though a subsequent recording of Kleinert's report went off without a hitch, a technician aired the outtake by mistake. The blunder has become very popular in the country and has had more than 300,000 views on the Internet video-sharing site YouTube.
Not without precedent
Germans are by no means strangers to technological glitches of this kind. In 1987, hundreds of thousands of TV viewers experienced an eerie sense of déjà-vu during the New Year's television address of then Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
All those who started questioning their sanity at the time were later relieved to learn that a German broadcaster had accidentally aired the tape with Kohl's New Year's address from the previous year.