Goodbye to the needle in the inner eye sockets

On Thursday at noon, Dani Ramírez provided the weather report live from the Darnius-Boadella reservoir. Although the fog obscured the reservoir, the famous indicator needle that has accompanied us for over a year announced that it was at 50% capacity, specifically 344 cubic hectometres. Through a series of photographs, Ramírez showed us the evolution of the reservoir during the drought months, and in fact, the last image was from March 2, just eighteen days old. It was then at 18% capacity. "Three saving weeks from the drought," the presenter told us, and then gave us some context. He reminded us that since December 2023, we had had the famous internal basin counter on screen with the needle indicating the dramatic state of the reservoirs. And he summed up the last year: "Around the first week of March 2024, it was at 100 cubic hectometers, 14% of reserves. And today we have it at 344 cubic hectometers, and reserves are about to reach 50%." And then came the unexpected surprise. Ramírez, pointing to the internal basin counter, told us: "From now on, we will no longer show you any more, and really, well, we say goodbye." Ramírez gestured with his hand toward the lower corner of the screen, as if sweeping it away, and the needle disappeared from the image: "And don't let that counter, which has kept us waiting for so many months, practically years, ever come back."

Ramírez put an end to one of the great innovations in meteorological information in recent decades. Neither the Generalitat's advertising campaigns, nor the water-saving advice, nor the restrictions, have achieved as much as this water meter in raising public awareness about the drought. The weather information needle provoked anxiety, but also addiction. Every time we saw it on screen, you could say we viewers blew on it to increase its level. It's surprising that as soon as the reservoirs' capacity reached a certain normality, we dismissed the water meter without ceremony, without nostalgia. The audience wasn't even allowed to enjoy a few weeks of optimistic data, after so many months of watching the sadness of the water meter hovering near the red alert zone. With such a simple television gesture, we bid farewell to the drought. And, as Dani Ramírez said, we hope that water meter doesn't return. We won't miss it during this prolonged dry season, but we will miss the water meter's information needle for the inland basins. We will notice a large void in the lower right corner of the screen. We will be missing something to focus on. We encourage intrepid and informative weather professionals to find a new indicator of any other data pointer to distract and motivate us amidst the routine and tedious weather information.