Sky News Weather - Watching the clock: the ‘m’ word
I no longer need to know the forecast weather as I might have done in times past. But it is a national fascination and also one of my own. Sometimes I do need to know. Plans have to be made occasionally, even if they are subsequently abandoned, establishing a welcome element of order into life. As an example, I will plan to roll the motorbike out and go for a spin. That needs good weather - well, it does for me. So, the weather at specific times of the day is then important to me.
I watch Sky News Weather because I like to see Sky’s News programme. The problem is that I am becoming fixated with the error of a key part of the report which is the time graphic. The issue here is: ‘meridiem’ - ante meridiem (am) is after midnight and before noon; and post meridiem(pm) is after noon and before midnight. Therefore, noon is neither before noon nor after noon; and likewise midnight is just that - midnight. Neither is "12am" nor "12pm". There is no denying that. It may be Latin, but the proper use of ‘am’ and ‘pm’ can, after all, be readily understood. None-the-less, you can see the Sky weather clock racing through, say, from seven in the morning; you watch the clouds racing too from the west, or the east, swirling systems grabbing the air as they go, dumping rain on poor old Ireland again, or whatever. You are watching that time graphic again and they ping one at you showing ‘pm’ or ‘am’ attached to the reading of 12. "What was that?", you ask yourself in near panic. You are lost. Will I be in bed at 12pm or will I be thinking about lunchtime sandwiches? Confusion. At the end of the forecast you do not know what weather was when; and you are left glaring at that "12pm" which sometimes just hangs there....as a smile does on the reporter’s face...(!) So, do I ride tomorrow or not? Cannot possibly say!
During our early years, each of us eventually learns to understand the clock. You would think that by the time we are old enough to understand weather forecasts we need nothing fresh on that. So, what is Sky trying to teach us? Is this New Sky News Weather Time (NSNWT)? No, no; they may be leaders in news gathering, but they are simply unable to cope with noon and midnight. They are at a loss. They seek some false conjunction with ‘am’ or ‘pm’ for those times and they imply that that is OK. Without a proper solution, anything will suffice. Sky have even decided which way round am and pm should be shown with ‘12’!
Why do they do this? Clocks have standards and there is no justification for any change. Sky should not be trying to teach us otherwise. Schoolchildren - beware! And no-one, please, go up to a policeman and ask him: " Is it 12pm yet?" (it would definitely confuse him).
Politicians and heads of organisations are very fond of telling us that ‘it is right to........’. Well, Sky, this is not right. Even The Good Old BBC eventually got it a couple of years ago and moved to the 24 hour clock (I am delighted, and somewhat surprised, to be writing). Good onit. You see, even (I say again) The Good Old BBC can show good sense at times (though it struggles desperately with all the ‘it is right to...’ issues).
Sky, your computers are able to tell the time properly. Has anyone there got the time (oooh!) to correct the graphic? It should not be too difficult. Or are you, Sky, like some others and standards, simply ‘not bovvered’?