It was announced on April 13 that the Kōchi NHK station’s weekday evening news has been showing the wrong icons for weather conditions in the corner of the screen for four years. Where the following day’s weather forecast for the eastern region of the prefecture should have appeared, the broadcaster had consistently been displaying the forecast for the western region.

Kōchi is on the island of Shikoku and spans about 100 miles east to west, wrapping around the Tosa Bay.

▼ Kōchi Prefecture

▼ Kōchi Prefecture as reported

So what happened here? Did they hire weather girl idols instead of real meteorologists?

▼ Did anyone notice the weather?

Or perhaps NHK is spending a little too much time on fee collection/vandalism and too little on the news.

It appears that the data the broadcasting station has been receiving from the meteorological agency was being displayed incorrectly because their equipment settings were updated incorrectly in 2010.

Considering that the broadcasting station in Nagoya had been reporting the wrong expected rainfall for Nagano City and had even flipped the weather reports for Mie and Gifu Prefectures, it’s entirely possible that other stations across the country have also been inadvertently reporting the wrong weather.

As for why no one has noticed the errors for a full four years, it could be the similarity of the weather in all parts of the small prefecture, the weather reports never being correct anyway, or simply gratitude that the weather girls also protect Japan from monsters.

▼ If Godzilla represents nuclear bombs, does this monster represent climate change?

Source: livedoor News

Images: Wikipedia