‘Ask Someone Else’: Popular Maltese Forecasting Page Temporarily Suspends Updates After ‘Desperate Attacks’ Following Sudden Weather Change
One of Malta’s most popular Facebook forecasting pages has announced it will “temporarily suspend” its updates after “a series of desperate, unjust and malicious attacks”… and it all started because of a sudden change in weather.
All throughout last week, along with most pages, It-Temp Madwarna had been predicting a storm for Saturday, with many heralding this as the islands’ much-needed shift to weather more appropriate of autumn. However, as has been happening in recent months, a sudden shift in wind meant the unstable formation of dark clouds, lightning and rain only partially hit Malta, with warm and sunny weather quickly returning to the islands despite all the previous prediction patterns. But it-Temp Madwarna quickly suffered the brunt of it instead, being called out by dozens of comments for simply spreading misinformation and scaremongering.
“Despite the near-perfect prediction where we saw everything that our graphic happening in some areas of Malta, and even after much deliberation, we feel it’s time to temporarily suspend our services,” the admin, Samuel Cutajar, posted yesterday. “If you have any questions on the weather, ask someone else. Thanks to the thousands of people who gave us their support.”
The statement by the page, which boasts over 70,000 followers, was met with over 1,500 comments on Facebook, with everyone from followers to competitors coming to its support.
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“I hope we can see Samuel Cutajar back giving us this free and unbiased service,” fellow forecasting page Aġġornament tat-Temp wrote on Facebook, sharing a screenshot from a conversation between the two. “Absolute solidarity with our friends over at Temp Madwarna. I’ll only tell you one word – continue!”
Popular page Maltese Islands Weather echoed the sentiment, condemning the “unacceptable acts of cowardice.” Going on to say “it wasn’t an easy day for weather forecasting”, the page said “those cowardly minorities make it even worse with their keyboards’ anonymity”.
“This is what happens when none of the concerned authorities deems it necessary to regulate media and hate speech,” local podcaster Ricky Caruana wrote. “That little good that there is completely screwed because of four desperate people offloading their sadness unto others.”
What do you make of this saga? Tag someone who used to follow It-Temp Madwarna’s updates.
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