Farmers are the natural ally of rain - pretty grim when there is none

There was a time before we had weather radars.

It may seem a little hard to get your head around but it's true.

There was a time when people leaned on their experience and even looked up into the sky to check on the clouds once in a while.

Today many people don't even bother to look outside but look at their phone to see if it's raining or not.

It reminds me of a brilliant Leunig cartoon of a man smiling while watching a sunrise on his television.

All the time that same sunrise was occurring just outside his window.

A friend of mine showed me his mobile phone recently.

He had a full folder of weather apps, no surprise there I suppose, he's a farmer.

Farmers are the natural ally of rain - pretty grim when there is none.

But I was surprised to see how many radar apps he had. Next level.

I am a taxpayer, I brandish my free Bureau of Meteorology app like a badge of honour because I help pay for it.

After all, those other weather app pretenders are all piggy-backing off the BOM radar feed anyway.

BOM is the most popular government website by a long way.

In the 2020-21 financial year, the bureau's website was accessed a staggering 721 million times.

There's not quite 26 million of us living here.

I've never heard anyone bitching about taxes being spent on BOM's radars.

Quite a few times I've been asked to write stories about communities fighting for their own radar, thinking they've be missing out on the rain somehow because they didn't have one.

Sure, there is always another side of the coin in terms of the accuracy of BOM's forecasts, especially the long-range stuff. Oh my, lots of heated opinions about that.

Though not as many angry comments have been heard after the Spanish folk settled in - most of us outside the flood zone love La Nina, El Nino's not someone you'd invite around for a cup of tea.

There used to be a time when we'd look out for a low pressure system spinning across from the west but now we are much more adept at reading the tea leaves.

Our friends at BOM expect us to become familiar as well with the Indian Ocean Dipole and the Southern Annular Mode.

I'll take that on notice.

If I had wanted to take a degree in science, I would have. The pretty pictures are pretty good for now.

We like the crazy angry colours you've cooked up for the really nasty stuff coming our way.

Those reds, yellows and orange. Sells a feeling of violent suspense somehow, nice work.

So what did people do before radars?

Back to watching nature I suppose, you know - looking up at the sky, or down at the ant nests and then enjoying the surprise when rain comes along.

Radar has taken the fun out of that.

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