My mother claims she’s obsessed with the weather because she grew up on a farm. I claim I’m obsessed with the weather because I grew up with my mother. In our house, you always watched the weather forecast after the news; it was as important as the headlines. I had presumed everyone was the same, that everyone’s family gathered around the TV nightly to hear the meteorologist’s predictions, but then I reached adulthood and saw my peers consistently caught out by the weather. Colleagues would come to work in woollen dresses, even when last night’s weather forecast had told us to expect a humid day. People on the streets would be umbrella-less, even when the showers had been predicted.
In 2021, there is really no excuse to be surprised by the weather. In Ireland, we live on an island that is buffeted by gales and battered by showers that can be difficult to predict with accuracy, but the various weather apps and websites (especially when combined) are usually a good indicator of what to expect.
Perhaps controversially, the app I most rely on is the free one that comes downloaded on my iPhone. It is generally considered to be less reliable than some of the other, more specialist weather apps but I like it because at a glance, I can see what the weather is like in various places. Alongside Dublin, where I live, I can see the forecast for any of the other 10 destinations I keep stored on the app. It’s not enough for me to know that it’s raining and 18 degrees where I am; I want to know what the weather is like in places that I would like to be or places that I used to be.
Having lived in London for almost a decade before coming back to Ireland last year, I consistently check the weather there. It just wouldn’t feel right to me to not know whether it was sunny or cold or raining or blustery in the place that holds so many of my memories and so many of my friends.
I can't know from the app whether they're happy or sad or somewhere in between - but I know what the weather is doing around them and I take some comfort in that.
I’ll glance at the weather in Dundee, too - it’s often similar to Dublin - because my dear friends and my goddaughter live there. I have it stored on my app from the last time I went to see them and even though it’s been more than two years since that visit, I still like to know what kind of day they’re having. I can’t know from the app whether they’re happy or sad or somewhere in between - but I know what the weather is doing around them and I take some comfort in that.
There’s barely any point in keeping an eye on Los Angeles - it’s basically always sunny and dry - but I like to know what’s going on because another close friend lives there with her family. The last time I had any practical need to know what the weather was like in LA was when I visited in 2017 but when I see the little yellow sunshine graphic, I feel close to my friend. I feel like I get an insight into the life she has set up for herself there; I can picture her walking near the Pacific Ocean with her baby daughter, whom I have never met. I imagine myself walking alongside them, because although it is extremely unlikely to ever happen, I hold on to a hope that someday I will live there, too. Someday, I too will wake up to the blue skies and go to sleep to the sounds of crickets.
I check in on Berlin because I spent an idyllic two months there in 2018 and on Manchester because I like to know how things are going for my husband’s family.
I find it interesting to simply note that other places are warmer, so much warmer, like 23 degrees warmer than here, can you imagine that?
A couple of the saved destinations have no special sentimental value but are there because I find them interesting, meteorologically speaking. “It’s 39 degrees in Marrakech!” I say to my husband and he looks at me, bewildered. We haven’t been to Marrakech since a holiday in January 2019 and we have no plans to return so he doesn’t understand why I’d care. I find it interesting to simply note that other places are warmer, so much warmer, like 23 degrees warmer than here, can you imagine that? He rolls his eyes at me.
Just like the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, the sun is always shining in the other places on my weather app. It’s easy to imagine that if I lived in Los Angeles or Berlin, my life would be smoother and easier - and the problem is that there’s a grain of truth in that. Of course, I’d still encounter all the usual issues in those other places - I’d still get indigestion in Vienna and I’d still feel anxious about money in Barcelona - but it would actually be sunnier there. It is nearly always sunnier in any of the other saved destinations on my phone. I could delete the destinations, live only with the reality of the weather outside my window, but I feel like I’d be deleting possibilities if I did that. Sometimes there’s a glorious day in Dublin, when no matter what the app says, it feels impossible that there could be a more perfect day occurring anywhere else. And even when it’s raining, it’s nice to be reminded that the sun is still shining somewhere else, on another part of my life or on someone I love.