When you grow up

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

We’ve all been asked this a million times when we were just kids, and we are probably guilty of asking that same question to the little ones around us. What is it, that you would like to be when you grow up?

A silly question, really, as most of us have no idea, some of us don’t even know as grown ups. Still, it’s a fun question to ask.

So, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Me, I wanted to be Armand Pien, but who on earth was Armand Pien?

Well, back in the days, we had only one ‘weatherman’ (weerman) in the Flanders and that was him. He was the face of our meteorological center KMI. Every day he would forecast the weather on the national TV and radio and he would end his talk with a saying, a rhyme or a joke. He was always positive, always had a (real) smile. He was a phenomenon!

I loved listening and watching him. In those days the low and high pressure zones were actually drawn on a map on a board, and he always explained what was going to happen. Thrilling!!!

So I wanted to be the weatherman, I wanted to be Armand Pien.

For some reason, it blew over, and my dreams changed, but I have always had an weakness in weather forecasts.

Nowadays we are flooded with forecasts, I have a ton of apps on my phone, optimistic ones, pessimistic ones, forecasting temperatures, storms, and whatever else that is going on, but what I miss is the explanation, I miss the humour and the excitement.

I even started a weather forecasting course. All excited I took the first online class, and the second. But the teacher was so utterly boring that I couldn’t get myself taking class 3. How one is able to change such an fascinating topic into something so boring, beats me.

And then I found Nicolas, from Noodweer.be, and more in particular, his youtube videos and live streams. Here he analyzes different weather models over the futur ; American, Canadian, European, French, German,… and presents them as if you are watching a thriller movie. “Will the storm reach the Flanders?”, or “Will winter come”, or “where are the thunderstorms?”. The exact weather systems I am interested in and love, are what excites him, and he just pulls you in and makes you go along. I watch him like I am watching a soap opera.

Almost daily he is online now : there is a snow zone coming. In the Netherlands some weather forecaster called it a ‘snowbomb’; snow is rather rare in the Low countries, so a word like that makes the headlines of all news stations. Only to find out that the snow zone is staying more south and is not touching the Netherlands. But I am not in the Netherlands. I am in Belgium.

Will it touch us or not? There is no certainty in any weather model until it’s actually there, right in front of you, and even then the zone can change path about 30km more north or south, which is a significant change, knowing that flanders is such a tiny country. 30km means the world to us.

I love winter, I love snow, almost as much as I love thunderstorms, and it’s coming!

Thanks to Nicolas I am prepared for my snow shoot today. Even though I am still waiting for the first flock to fall. All my options are open, but a snow shoot it will be!