Chamber of Commerce Weather

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Olivia. I’m calling from Pensacola, Florida.

What can we do for you, Olivia?

The other day, my husband and I were sitting on the couch at night. We had the local news on in the background, but we weren’t really watching it. But then the local weather person said, you know, it was just it was a fair day, clear skies, 72 degrees. It was just it was a perfect day. You know, it was a real Chamber of Commerce day.

And my husband paused and looked at me and said, what did she just say? And I just, I kind of wrote him off and I said, oh, you know, she’s just, I think she was referencing a local event or something like that. And he said, no, she wasn’t. She was using that to describe the weather. So we just found it so odd and kind of just one of those things we had never heard.

I looked it up on my phone. I found a brief thing about maybe on an idiom website and not an idiom I’ve heard. And my husband was like, yes, you can call A Way with Words. Your favorite show. The perfect opportunity, but before we did, before I called in, I used the opportunity the next day. I had some family in town and we were celebrating my son’s birthday. The weather was the same. We were sitting outside and I said to my sister, wow, it’s just, it’s a real Chamber of Commerce day. And she was shaking her head yes. And she turned to me and said, what did you just say? And so we got our family the rest of the day. Because I mean, I would say that we’re pretty familiar with most sayings and phrases, and it really threw us off for a loop.

It is about 100 years old, and it’s got an interesting little history. There was a time when the Chambers of Commerce around the United States would record the local weather and report it back to the U.S. Weather Bureau. They not only recorded it for the National Weather Bureau, but for their own records because the Chamber of Commerce, just like now, would put a lot of effort in bringing new people and new businesses to the area. And so to say that you had Chamber of Commerce weather meant that you had great weather. But it’s curious that most often it refers to really, really great weather, like sunny and warm. Like you almost always see it referring to Florida and Southern California, exactly where we are and you are.

Oh, excellent.

Yeah.

Good to be here.

So postcard perfect.

Postcard perfect, yeah.

Yes, and it surely was, but it just seemed like such a clunky way to say it. I can’t maybe deduce what it was, but at the same time we were thinking, why would you use that?

No, that’s it, because the Chamber of Commerce really wants to prove to people from outside their area, we have great weather. We have exactly the kind of weather that you want. If you want rain for your crops, we have that. If you want sun for your kids to play outside, we have that too. But to you, it sounds like a better business bureau day or something like that, right? Like some kind of institution’s day.

Right.

Exactly.

It was the kind of thing. And then we just thought our way of thinking about it was, okay, well, it was the day that you’d want to be out and shopping and commerce or doing that sort of thing. So, yeah.

Well, here we go. Thank you for bringing it to our attention, Olivia.

Thank you so much. We’ll be peppering it into our daily conversations, if nothing else, than to freak other people out who haven’t heard it.

Yeah, what are a few weird looks?

Right?

Yes, it makes it all worth it. And an opportunity to tell them about your show.

Oh, I love it.

Hey, thanks.

Thanks for evangelizing it.

Take care, Olivia.

All right, be well.

You too.

Thank you so much.

Have a good day.

Bye-bye.

Okay, take care.

Well, we’d love to hear your weather terms, whether it’s old expressions or proverbs or just something. The weird weather guy said 877-929-9673. Email words@waywordradio.org.