In New Novel, TV Weatherman Takes Toledo on a Wild Ride
What caused the brutal weather Toledo endured earlier this winter? Storms moving down from Canada? Cloud seeding gone amok?
Or could it be the work of a television weatherman?
In Daniel Breeze's new novel, We're Having a Heat Wave, TV weatherman Jerry Sheldon discovers he can control the weather in Toledo, his hometown.
Edward, a cantankerous entity in Heaven who is in charge of the weather on earth, becomes annoyed by complaints about lousy weather and decides to gives Jerry control over Toledo's weather. Jerry is soon making outlandish forecasts, and they come true! Toledo basks in 80-degree temperatures in December as towns fifteen miles away battle snowstorms.
People are amazed at Jerry's forecasting success, but later his weather spirals out of control, and angry townspeople and rival TV weathermen turn on him. It all comes down to a fateful day when two tornadoes bore down on Toledo just as the National Meteorological Society holds a hearing to determine if Jerry should be banned from the weather profession.
Isn't this a little farfetched? the author was asked. Edward up in Heaven, controlling the weather. Giving control of the weather in Toledo to a television weatherman? "Consider the alternatives," suggests Breeze. "If God is controlling the weather, why is it so screwed up? He is Almighty. And if He isn't controlling it, is the weather on autopilot and spinning out of control? I figure it makes as much sense, and is a lot more comforting, to have Edward, one of His assistants, up there controlling the weather. It makes sense because if Edward isn't very good at his job, that explains why we have a lot of bad weather. And it's comforting because there's always the chance that one day, Edward will get all the kinks worked out and he’ll get it right."
More than 130 years ago, Mark Twain spoke along similar lines when he addressed the New England Society: "I reverently believe that the Maker who made us all makes everything in New England but the weather. I don't know who makes that, but I think it must be raw apprentices in the weather-clerk's factory who experiment and learn how, in New England, for board and clothes, and then are promoted to make weather for countries that require a good article, and will take their custom elsewhere if they don’t get it."
Of course, if you don't believe Edward is handling the weather, you can blame the calamitous storms this winter on cold fronts sweeping down out of Canada.
"Give me a break," Breeze said. "Who would believe that? Just how gullible do you think I am?"
We're Having a Heat Wave is a $9.95 trade paperback published by McNeil and Richards (www.McNeilAndRichards.com). Breeze is a former newspaperman who lives in Illinois.
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