“That just happened, right?” I’ll ask.
It’s really google, not some weird google83935.fun/magic page. It’s the real forecast for the city they freely name. She can refresh the page or check on her phone. The weather has really changed.
“Do me a favor, don’t tell anyone about this,” I’ll say.
There it is. It’s an impromptu trick, assuming you have your computer with you.
And that’s just one way of doing it. If someone is traveling you could change the weather so they have a nicer day when they arrive. Or if they have an outdoor event coming up you could change the weather for that day. Or change the weather for someone’s upcoming birthday. “Consider that my gift,” you say, and save yourself $40.
I think the way I will be most likely to get into it is—when anybody mentions that it’s a nice day—I’ll say. “It is, isn’t it.” With a weird smile on my face. “It wasn’t supposed to be. A couple of days ago they were calling for rain.” Then I’ll just let that sit there. And later I’ll be like, “Okay, I can’t keep this a secret. I have to show you this thing I learned.”
The ritual to change the weather could also be more elaborate. You could slit a rabbit’s throat and bathe in its blood or something like that. Or have some weird weather iconography carved into rocks that you manipulate and pray to or whatever. I just gave a simple impromptu ritual that you could let the spectator read into, or you could define it in some way.
Do this trick one day and Aelous from TOY another day and then add your name to the Weather God wikipedia page.
Zeus, Greek - Thunder/lightning and sky god and king of the gods
Tamar (Goddess) - Georgian virgin goddess who controlled the weather.
Indra, Hindu - Thunder/lightning god.
Chip Dupree - Weather God, cashier at Foot Locker (and, like Tamar, also a virgin)
Method
I will let Leigh take it from here. He’s written a really clear document describing the effect and method. It’s super simple. Even if you’ve never done something like it before, don’t worry. He’ll walk you through it and make the process very easy.
Here are the instructions.
In my write-up above, I ask for them to google the lat/longitude just to lay the foundation that this is a real google search. At that point they’re not questioning anything anyways, but I like the idea of having them do a real search or two before getting to the weather page.
And, in my description, I would do the necessary dirty work on the keyboard as I turn the laptop so we can both see it.
At the end of that document, Leigh also provides a way for you to contact him if you have questions, suggestions, or just to thank him. If you think this is anywhere near as cool as I do, you should definitely go thank him.
Alternate Presentational Idea
For whatever reason you find yourself looking at the weather results for your city or another city with a friend of yours. The day you two are particularly interested in looks like it’s going to be shitty weather. “Damn,” you say.
You look around a little, cautiously. “Hmmm… I kind of hate to do this, but I don’t want bad weather for the party. Here, come on.”
As you walk outside you talk about the Butterfly Effect, how a butterfly flapping its wings in one location can eventually lead to a hurricane on the other side of the globe. “This is going to sound unbelievable, I know. But the weird thing is… I can do something similar. Not cause a hurricane. Not yet, at least. But shift around some weather patterns a little to help us out. Where’s north?” You figure out where north is and walk a few steps in that direction then turn to the right just a few degrees. Then you start huffing and puffing like a maniac, or flapping your arms as if they’re wings (depending on how big a jackass you want to look like). After a few moments you stop and compose yourself. “Let’s see if that worked, you say.”
You walk back inside and check the weather forecast. It’s still the same. “Well,” you say, ‘it’s not immediate. The domino effect of conditions has to go up into the troposphere and re-jigger everything. Not to get lost in the science of it all. But it usually takes a minute or so. Oh look, there it goes.”
You draw their attention to the computer and you see in real time how your actions have affected the future as the clouds fade into bright sunshine.
