> Normally, by that time of day (noonish), I would have checked the weather 17 times or so already, all but one of them a pointless reflexive tic.
I'm as online as the next guy, but why would someone check the weather more than once or twice a day? Granted, I live in California so I don't worry much about extreme weather, but even when I lived on the east coast I would only check the weather once in the morning.
I don’t think it’s something they consciously want to do (“… pointless reflexive tic”). I’m sure many of us have a site where it takes a few milliseconds to hit ctrl-t, type the first few letters, let autocomplete fill it out and hit enter. If your mind is wandering you can easily find yourself doing this many times per day
I live in the UK where the weather can change significantly during the course of the day and I still generally just look out of a window rather than rely on weather forecasts.
I put the couple hours' weather forecast on my Apple Watch display as a reminder to get more walks in on work days (especially in WFH life where I'm not regularly walking to lunch).
It is interesting to watch forecasts shift as conditions change. Having it on my wrist, I find I check it about as often as I check the time. Even if I'm not really planning to do much with the information.
Weather is one of the oldest forms of small talk. Even when you aren't worried about extreme weather events, weather is part of life.
I'm as online as the next guy, but why would someone check the weather more than once or twice a day? Granted, I live in California so I don't worry much about extreme weather, but even when I lived on the east coast I would only check the weather once in the morning.