Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. If I could have done something about it I wouldn’t have had to deal with a blizzard of weather-cancelled New York appointments recently, and if someone as powerful as a big-time blogger cannot not control his destiny then no one can.
Lately there’s been more talk about the weather than about whether Brangelina is actually splitting wider than the San Andreas fault. That El Nino dude is heating the surface of the Pacific Ocean off Peru and Ecuador and triggering “Day After” weather from sea to shining sea. On the Left Coast, El Nino has made things wetter than Chicago during Prohibition. In the East, folks who gloated that hurricanes were scarcer than honest stock brokers last year, are eating their words while they await the arrival of the plows — again.
Anyhoo, all this weather talk got me to thinking about what we can do about this. We can be prepared. We can know when the storms are forming in the Pacific, where they’re going, when we should pack up the bags and get out of our houses on mud cliffs and when we should buy bread and milk and eggs and wait to be snowed in. And, of course, when we should make certain there are no loaded weapons in houses where adults and kids are jammed together over two and three-day spans.
Now I know there’s plenty of weather coverage already available. I’ve watched them interview stranded travelers and overworked road crews on the local news. I know there’s The Weather Channel, that admirable 24×7 laymen’s explanation of what the National Weather Service wants to say. I know that the digital transition put local weather on a single channel in almost every market. I know you can find weather on your computer or your phone or your PDA. And I know you can personalize the information.
But for those of us who are tired of the standard weather coverage, there is something else we can do in this interactive age. Stick with me: Yes, everybody DOES talk about the weather, but Edgar’s doing something about it.
First, a tip of my rain hat to the folks at AccuWeather, who’ve created an interactive television channel that puts the viewer in control of weather news. Weather information from around the globe, video reports from around the country and — most important — local forecasts are available when you need them. You can see where the next storm is forming, where its track will take it and when you should expect to be ravaged by rain or slicked by sleet or walloped by wind or smashed by snow.
But with all due respect to the folks at AccuWeather, why stop there? The EdgarWeather app would be a one-stop shop for all of your weather-related services. At the push of a button, you would connect with A) the local grocery, for bread and milk and eggs (or beer, wine and sangria if it’s going to be a long storm); B) the snow removal company; and C) the pharmacy and the chiropractor, if you didn’t push (B).
But the real “secret sauce” to EdgarWeather would be an app within the app that leads you directly to a travel agent or, better yet, an airlines booking site. Press a button and buy a ticket to Cancun. Press another button and schedule Super Shuttle. Press a third button and inform the family you’re outta there.
Now that’s interactivity!
