Weather Forecasts: Past and Present

Back when there was no television.
Of course, I wasn't even a seed back then.
In those days, there were no highly accurate weather forecasts like we have now.
Forecasters would look at the sky and predict the weather based on cloud movement and wind direction.
When they couldn't decide, they would just toss a wooden clog and if it landed face down, they'd call it a sunny day.

That seems to be how it was.

Well, time moved on, and I was a child.
Television arrived.

Writing it like this makes me sound incredibly old,
but I feel like we got our first TV when I was in kindergarten.
It was black and white, would go on strike every now and then,
and you'd have to hit the top of the TV to get the picture back, haha.

By that time, it seems they were using scientific forecasting methods.
However, they were often wrong.
There was no way they had the accuracy of today,
and it often happened that I'd take an umbrella because they said, "It will rain today,"
only for not a single drop to fall.

Because of that, adults would grumble, "They're always wrong."
Some would even file complaints with the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Others would complain to the TV stations.

The people on the receiving end must have thought, "How should I know what the weather will be!"

Time flows into the present day.
Now, we don't even need a television.
If you pick up your smartphone and say, "Tell me today's weather,"
the weather for your area appears in a list.

If you check the "Rain Cloud Radar," you can see where the rain clouds are now,
how they are moving, and when it will start to rain.

It can even track not just rain, but lightning as well.
Thanks to this, I check the rain cloud radar when I go out.
If it rains while I'm on my computer, I check the lightning radar.

I can judge that it will reach near my house at such-and-such a time,
so it's okay to keep using the computer until then.

And what's more, it's almost never wrong.

Times have changed.
From wooden clogs to television, and now even the television is no longer needed.
It is extremely convenient.

If so, what will happen from here on?
I don't think there will be any major changes after reaching this point.
Perhaps every household will have a humanoid AI robot,
and when you ask it, "Tell me the weather," it will answer you.

But that's no different from asking a smartphone.
Does that mean this is as far as it goes?

Even so, because I am alive, I can witness the development of science,
and I can feel the flow of the times firsthand.

What kind of future lies ahead?
Flying cars? People and pets walking around wearing air purifiers?
Regardless, I think I'd like to see it.

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