What We Talk About When We Talk About the Weather

Small talk about the weather is usually dismissed as the lowest form of conversation. I have come to think it is one of the most useful. It is the one topic everyone shares, that offends no one, that invites agreement. “Cold one today” is not a statement about temperature. It is a way of saying: we are here together, in this.

Lately the weather talk has changed. People mention fires on the other side of the continent, the strange warm December, the storm that came out of nowhere. The old reassurance is harder to find. But the impulse, to turn to a stranger and name what is happening to both of you, remains. Maybe it matters more now.