Weather you like it or not

What section or part of the TV news program do you think can possibly have a direct impact on you and other people? Unless you are a sportsfan, the sports news; a stock investor, the business news; and a fan of artists, the entertainment/showbiz news. But the right answer to this question is the weather news.

The weather news can affect you and other people directly. But how? Let’s put up a scenario: a typhoon enters the country and would hit Metro Manila. It needs to be reported for people in Metro Manila to know that typhoon is coming and preparation is needed. The national and local government could put up plans to reduce to no casualty by evacuating people to a safe place. Seafarers and airline carriers avoid travelling as well as bus companies, jeepney driver and motorists. Of course, classes are suspended. But not just typhoon that weather news is needed but during normal days such forecasting rains and temperature.


In every weather news report, there are some terminologies that are used. Whether you may agree or not, these terminologies are familiar to you but you do not know what is the meaning. Take for example, ITCZ or Intertropical Convergence Zone. ITCZ means the northeasterly winds and southeasterly winds converge to form an often continuous band of clouds or thunderstorms near the equator. Philippines can be example in these area affected by ITCZ since it is near the equator. Variation of the location of ITCZ drastically affects rainfall in many equatorial nations, resulting in the wet and dry seasons of the tropics. Another one is Low Pressure Area. LPA means that the area has the lowest atmospheric pressure. There will be rain in the area. If intensify, LPA may become tropical depression such as tropical storms. Hanging Habagat is known as Southwest Moonsoon while Hanging Amihan is also known Northeast Moonsoon. The former brings violent winds and storms in the west portion of the country while the latter draws cold and dry air that came from icy Siberia, China and Japan. 

Speaking of tropical storms, as you observe, it has names unlike earthquakes. Tropical storms are named for better recall than the typhoon coordinates. Storm naming "facilitates tropical cyclone/hurricane disaster risk awareness, preparedness, management and reduction" according to World Meteorological Organization. The WMO has a set of strict procedures in naming storms. Storms have international names depending on their geographical location in the world. Here in the Philippines, PAG-ASA has also set of Filipino names given to storms within the Philippine area of responsibility. For example, while Filipinos know "Typhoon Ondoy" locally, but internationally, the storm is named as "Typhoon Ketsana". PAG-ASA has a alphabetical set of names for typhoons, in groups of four. Each group has a corresponding year with 4 years interval. 

There is no doubt that weather news are just as important as all other news. It has a direct impact on every individual. Whether they are rich or poor, influential or common people,  when typhoon struck everyone gets affected. And whether there is typhoon or forecasting rainfall, it's still a news for people to know.