New Zealanders seem to have quite a fascination with the weather and is it solely because it is rarely the same weatherwise over a 24 hour period on our shores?.

For the likes of Hawaii, Singapore and Indonesia, the weather barely rates a mention and if it does, it might be under the price of pickles in the bottom left hand corner on page 73 in the local rag!That tends to be because there is little change year round and there isn’t a need for a daily or an hourly update.

In a maritime climate such as ours, we can experience 4 seasons in one day and although this makes it difficult to plan for outdoor events at anytime of the year, it seems to generate lively conversation.

I recently heard a farmer say on the radio that, “The wind last night was blowing like 40 b******s and the girls were getting a bit uptight”.

Now if we translate that..A strong nor’ wester blew over 100 kph and the cows were fairly anxious as all around them, some roofing iron and other debris were being blown about.(yeah ok, I think I preferred the farmers description too!).

It’s so often at the top of our minds as we get prepared to go to work or school, head away for a long weekend or just want to get out into the garden.We just want to know if it’s going to rain, will it be cold and how windy is it going to be.Now these sorts of questions aren’t often asked in the middle of the Sahara or in Death Valley in California. The question there might be-How am I going to survive??!!

The weather is a big ratings winner in this part of the world and at times has even climbed above the news in terms of its viewership and listenership.

I wonder if this has to do with how we percieve our weather being more extreme thesedays or that climate change and global warming is right in our face.Is it merely the fact that the media now jump on any possible weather story and get as much out of it as possible?Is it really that different from yesteryear?.Perhaps we’ll look at that more at another time.

We might not always be happy with what nature provides for us from time to time but it certainly remains a topic of interest for many of us.

Weather Analyst-Richard Green