MERIVALE WEATHER APP INSISTS IT'S SUNNY WHILE ANTARCTICA VISIBLY APPROACHES FROM THE SOUTH
Little sun icon smiling away. Meanwhile the flag outside Ballantynes is doing a full horizontal.
A weather app on a Merivale bloke's phone is currently displaying a cheerful yellow sun over Christchurch, despite the fact that anyone with a functioning window can see the southerly rolling up Papanui Road like it owes someone money.
The phone belongs to Damo Whitcombe, a sparky who was trying to work out whether to bring the tools inside before smoko. "App reckons 18 and sunny. I'm standing in the ute park at Bunnings and I can't feel me fingers. Bloody thing's having a laugh."
Damo said he'd checked three apps. One said sunny. One said light cloud. The third one, which he pays for, said "partly cloudy" and then crashed. "Meanwhile me apprentice's hi-vis has blown into the next carpark and there's a bit of hail on the windscreen. Partly cloudy me arse."
A woman queuing at the Merivale Mall bakery, Prue Ellwood, said her app had been telling her it was 14 degrees since Tuesday. "It's been 14 degrees every day this week apparently. My gas bill says otherwise. The lawn's rooted. What're you gonna do."
MetService, contacted for comment, said the forecast was "broadly accurate for the wider Canterbury Plains" and that conditions in individual suburbs may vary. Asked whether the wider Canterbury Plains included the bit where people actually live, they said they'd get back to us.
Damo has since put the tools away, gone home, and lit the fire. His app is still showing a sun. It is now dark.
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Reader Letters
★ Trev_Hornby
Weather apps are a joke.
★ Margaret_F
Honestly, you can't trust technology. Back in our day, we relied on actual thermometers and not apps. Gerald would agree—he never trusted anything with a battery!
tania_nz
MetService should stick to safe bets. I mean, Canterbury weather can just flip without a warning! Just say it's 'variable' and be done with it.
★ BarryBishopdale
It wouldn't have happened back in my day when common sense was used instead of daft weather gadgets! Next, they'll say bloody cyclists are accurate tornado trackers.
wayne1987
Barry, you're off your rocker, mate. Cyclists have nothing to do with weather apps, but I'd pay to see them try.
LiamH72
Honestly, Barry, I've seen more reliable forecasts from flipping coins.
Sandra64
Flag outside Ballantynes always knows better. When it goes horizontal, it's time to head indoors. Apps are too busy being pleasant.
weather_whizz98
Apparent temperatures are always off—it's because of atmospheric refraction or some meteorological phenomenon they never fully grasp. Simply, just dress warmly, guys.
millie_styles
Bunnings' weather reports? Good use for a sausage sizzle forecast.
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