FLISA, INLAND (Dagbladet:) – This will be expensiveSvein Sparby snaps with a twinkle in his eye.
Dagbladet turns into the center of Flisa three minutes after the agreed meeting time.
The “weather prophet” from Flisa, who is a regular feature in the local newspaper Østlendingen, knows that he is a sought-after man.
– Before today, TV 2 called, and then it was P4. But it was only you who came here, says Sparby.
– Hot as hell
The 78-year-old has a clear idea of what the weather will be like this summer.
– It was hot on 1 May, and that day shows the weather for the summer, says Sparby in thick Solung dialect.
– It will be hellishly hot this summer, but it will also rain, postulates Sparby.
He has a wish branch with him. In his own words, a tool you can ask about “everything possible”.
LETER: Sparby claims he can find water pipes under the ground. Photo: Lars Eivind Bones / Dagbladet
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– It’s often a birch twig, but I can really use anything. Clothes hangers also work, he says.
Solungen is aware that the meteorologists have their work cut out for them. They are the professionals.
– But I’ll probably go Yr one long time, he says and smiles.
– What about people who say that what you do is just nonsense?
– I’m so old that I’m not worried about that.
He is also not afraid to exaggerate a bit when he predicts the weather.
– I’ve probably been banned from radio. I swear like crazy. But it looks he between the fingers, says Sparby and points upwards. The 78-year-old is a believer.
– He cracks down on unruly and disgusting behaviour. Words, and swear words, are just language.
– But you’re quick-witted?
– Yes, I always have been. My father was too, says Sparby and says that he was made in 1945, but born in 1946.
– Many of us were born after the war. Now there is talk of us costing society so much, but think about how much labor we have contributed over the years, he says.
A stick for the country
Onskekvisten has been a permanent resident of Sparby’s Toyota since 1991. With a steady hand, he predicts that it will rain on Solør at the weekend. According to Yr.no, rain has been reported on Sunday.
PINNE: Sparby has the wishbone in the car. Photo: Lars Eivind Bones / Dagbladet
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During the conversation, the Easterner calls. Others at Flisa walk over to greet the man who walks with a Y-shaped stick and claims to find water pipes under the ground. Sparby is a familiar face at Flisa.
– You can find both water pipes and electrical cables, says Sparby.
Despite the fact that he has announced a hot summer, the 78-year-old is not positive about the weather ahead. He is a climate-aware forecaster.
– I am probably part of the minority who care about nature. It has become so uncertain now. Many of the old weather signs are no longer relevant, he says.
Sparby says he thinks humanity has entered the computer age rather quickly. He himself has a mobile phone, but not a PC.
– We started with computers at least a generation too early. And now there are robots for everything. Just think of the robotic lawnmowers, which mow around the clock. They don’t think about all the millions of insects and creatures on the ground that they are mowing over.
Despite the fact that Dagbladet met three minutes late, Sparby does not charge for the session.
– But I think I deserve at least six months’ subscription for free, he says with a grin.
The meteorologist: – We do not predict
Some who do, however, use computers, and they do, are the meteorologists at the Meteorological Institute.
On-duty Meteorologist Emilie Carin Rønning is aware that the work they carry out is computer-based.
– We don’t drive and predict the weather. We deal with weather forecasting. It is based on observations, statistics and physics to forecast the weather ahead.
Rønning explains that there is a difference between weather models and climate models that can say something about how the weather has developed historically and how can become.
– We also use previous measurements to say something about how the climate and temperature have been in the past. We can use it to say how things may turn out in the future, based on previous measurements.
Rønning has no comment on Sparby’s claim that it will be a hot but wet summer.
