Michael Fish talks about snow

A snowHead

Well, at least he talks about snow if you put the words into his mouth:

This looks to be Fish well before his landmark 1987 hurricane broadcast - but snow is far more interesting than hurricanes anyway - so what did our moustachioed hero have to say about this dramatic Scottish blizzard?

[Acknowledgments to SkiBeard on www.winterhighland.com for borrowing the pic. And acknowledgments to Britain's favourite weatherman, recently retired - hopefully living it up in the powder]

A snowHead

Hopefully the blizzards will hide my hideous tie...

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

David Goldsmith, The 1987 hurricane was pretty interesting if you were staying in a caravn in the middle of the Surrey forest as I was! Shocked

We should all encourage Michael Fish to say that it WON'T snow - that'll do it!

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<LURK MODE \OFF>

Point of order! NehNeh

The 1987 hurricane wasn't actually a hurricane at all. Hurricanes are very large, powerful tropical storms which form in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Great Storm of 87 produced hurricane force winds, but was no more a hurricane than it was a typhoon or a tropical cyclone.

<LURK MODE \ON>

NehNeh

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Julie Brown, Welcome to snowHeads!

I can see I might have serious competition for "pedant-in-chief"!

You'll need to Register first of course.

Welcome Julie Brown ! while we're doing pedantry Wink

- a hurricane can also be a generic term for a "wind of hurricane force", a waterspout, a storm of words (mid 17th century), not to mention a "large crowded assembly of fashionable people at a private house" (mid 18th century, early 19th)... Shocked

(what sort of private house, I wonder?)

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Ah, laundryman, in fact I think you'll find that

a. you are not, at this time "pedant-in-chief" as you have not been elected as such
b. if so, you would be Chief Pedant, but you're not
c. "competition" surely implies some type of rules and, of course, competitors, which would involve notification to interested parties that such a "competition" was taking place in order that others could achieve the status of "competitors". In order to declare a winner there would have to be some reasonable timescale involved between such notification and declaration of the "winner"
d. Who would judge this contest? Under whose authority?

We should be told.
Julie Brown, did you really know what you were letting yourself in for? Welcome anyway.

After all it is free

scream, I think the word "might" is my get-out-of-jail-free card Wink

laundryman, as a convicted felon, I think you "might" find that your civil liberties are severely compromised and, if you wish to continue making such rash claims, I shall be forced to notify David Blunkett. Your get-out-of-jail free must be surrendered immediately or your next parole application will not be considered favourably.
Sad

How on earth did we get here from hurricanes? There must be some true pedant out there who can explain.
Puzzled

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

laundryman, no, note the reference to "fashionable people". After viewing the delightful pictures of romper suits elsewhere on this forum, I don't think we would qualify. However, what is reality, what is virtuality? Cogito ergo scum, perchance?

snow reports

laundryman, a blizzard of snowHeads might be a more suitable collective term? No ambiguity with blizzard, it turned up in the late 19th century with its current meaning, origin uncertain, although in the US in the earlier part of that century it meant a sharp blow, or a knock....

You know it makes sense.

Julie Brown, True, but even sticklers for form have to admit that language is an ever-evolving thing, and today's OED provides for the colloquial use of the term, as mentioned above. A hurricane may not be a Hurricane, but it's still a hurricane by definition through accepted usage, as it were! Confused

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

PG, , I see what you mean. You are right of course. Since everyone mistakenly called the Great Storm of 1987 a hurricane, and continue to do so, that 17 years of common usage has given the word a different meaning. A term which was wrong in a certain context at one point in time becomes correct if everyone uses it in that context for long enough.

I wonder is meteorological science is taught differently now as a result?

By the way, thanks everyone for the nice welcome.

A snowHead

Well I slept through it! Woke up to no electricity, no garden fences, a tree on the car and a load of roof tiles missing Smile

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

And I was lying on a beach somewhere on a beach in Skiathos oblivious to whatever you pedants want to call it...... wink

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I think where the confusion comes in, is that the storm was the after effect of a hurricane. It's the same weather system, it's just no longer classified as a hurricane. Just like some of the gales we got this autumn were the tail end of the hurricanes that were widely reported in the carribean/States.

Help!!

Michael Fish talks about snow

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