Geography and weather broadcasting go hand in hand. Alerts relate to towns or cities, and topography can play a role in the forecast. Certain places are fun to say, others you just try to avoid. I loved saying “Walla Walla, Washington”, or “Oshkosh, Wisconsin”. But I, along with many avoided publicly mentioning obvious innuendoes like Intercourse and Paradise right next to each other in Lancaster County, PA. When I moved to Baltimore in 1997, I was warned to learn the correct pronunciation of certain town names like Ellicott City ( emphasis on the first syllable), Cockeysville (sounds like cocky), even Towson (sounds like cow). It was important to know that Bel Air Road (b’lair) leads to Bel Air (belle air) Maryland in Harford County. I’d love to hear the hard to mention cities/towns in other markets. But that is nothing compared to what happened in Great Britain this week when Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch got a mention.
Welsh TV Weatherman Liam Dutton put his own mark on the map by doing the seemingly impossible. He included the 58 letter town Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch as one of the warmest places in the UK in his weather report on September 8th. It was flawless! I would nominate him for Ninja Warrior, but Joe Moravsky took ‘The Weatherman’ title here in America. Remember when Al Roker stayed on TV broadcasting for 34 hours to upstage a woman from Norway for the World record? This is better than that. This video has gone viral and has been over 2 million times online already. Listen to history being made (you may want to replay it a few times), maybe give him a throat lozenge too.
With all due respect, Liam knew he was about to do something special. I wonder how long he trained for this, to have enough confidence to go for it! Here was his tweet prior to the big event.
Follow Liam Dutton on Twitter and give him a nod. Tell him I sent you.
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