Martha the Weather Dog

Martha the Weather Dog appeared on March 16, 2009 as the 26th episode of Season 1

## Summary

Windy McCloud, Wagstaff City's meteorologist, wants Martha to be her weather dog. Martha's thrilled that she'll be able to change the weather to suit Helen and her friends, until she finds out she's not going to make the weather, she's going to predict it. But all her predictions are way off. What should she tell Windy?

## Synopsis

It begins with Martha and Helen walking up to the Corner Shop. Martha is saying a tongue twister she learned: *A skunk sat on a stump and stunk, the stump stunk. But the stump stunk; the skunk stunk.* She invites Helen to try. Helen tries, but gets distracted and points something out. Martha thinks she's reciting the tongue twister wrong. Helen points again, having noticed Windy McCloud sitting at the cafe table and recognised her from the weather reports on TV. Windy is talking on the phone about how she's embarrassed that Sunny the Weather Dog is beating her in the ratings despite him being a dog and therefore being unable to tell the difference between a rain shower and a meteor shower and that she used to think that to be a weather reporter you need to be well informed and "cute", but now you also need to have four legs and a wet nose, apparently. Martha walks up to Windy with a tongue twister: *Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not, whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot? We'll weather the whether we like it or not!* Windy then hangs up the phone.

An old lady boards Daniel's bus, upon which Helen is also a passenger. Daniel asks Martha if Windy McCloud wants her to be a weather dog. Martha enthusiastically replies yes. Helen says that another weather station has a weather dog named Sunny. Martha points out that Sunny can't talk but she can and that Windy says they will be tops on TV in no time. She then walks up to Danny, who stops, telling her all passengers behind the white line. Martha backs up and Daniel asks her when it starts. Martha says that it's in two weeks and that she can't wait. She then imagines herself being able to change the weather. She then says that when she's weather dog there'll be no more rained-out baseball games or hot, muggy dogs. Daniel says that weather dogs don't change the weather, they just make forecasts. Martha wonders what a forecast is.

On TV, Windy predicts mild sun over the weekend. Daniel, who is now sitting on the couch with Helen and Mariella, tells Martha, who is sitting on the floor, explains that what she just watched was a forecast and it's when they tell people what you think will happen in the future. Martha looks worried.

That evening, Helen is in her pyjamas, reading in bed, and Martha tells her she doesn't want to be a weather dog. Helen asks her why not and says she will be great. Martha says she won't because Windy can forecast the weather for next week while she can't even predict tomorrow's weather. Helen doesn't know what "predict" means. Martha jumps onto the bed and says that a prediction and a forecast are the same thing in that both mean you have to tell people what you think will happen before it does. She then lies down and says she is lousy at making predictions. She then remembers a time when she thought Jake would feed her some baby food, but he fed it to Skits. Martha then tells Helen that she can't see three seconds into the future.

The next day, in Helen's backyard, Helen is reading under the tree, Truman is sitting on the swing, and Martha and Skits are sitting and lying on the grass respectively. Helen wonders how Windy predicts the future, and Martha wonders if Windy is psychic. Helen asks "Psychic?", and Martha says "Yeah, maybe she's got a crystal ball or something". She then imagines Windy with a crystal ball. Truman says that meteorologists are too scientific to have crystal balls. The dogs think that Truman used the word "meaty" and wonder where the meat is. Truman says that meteorologists are people who study the weather and it doesn't have to do with meat. Martha asks if he's sure it's not a word for someone who gives away meat, and Truman says "Positive". Martha decides words would be cooler if dogs defined them.

In Truman's bedroom, Truman uses his computer to show meteorology-related images and says that a meteorologist is not just a pretty face, they use science to predict the weather. Martha asks if they don't just guess. Truman says no, they look at warm and cold fronts, weather vanes, thermometers, barometers, weather books, and a host of other stuff, and *then* they guess.

On the footpath, Truman shows Martha and Skits a thermometer and explains that meteorologists use thermometers to tell the temperature. Martha wonders if that means checking to see if the air has a fever or not. Truman says that's sort of true and explains what temperature is. He then points at a weather vane and says that weather vanes are used for telling where the wind is coming from. Martha says she just uses her ears. She then asks how she will forecast the weather, and Truman says that she can use the clouds, which confuses Helen and Martha.

At the Park, Skits, Martha, Truman, and Helen lie on the grass looking at the sky and Truman relays info from a book about clouds, saying that clouds tell you how much moisture is in the air. He then points at illustrations of cirrus, cumulus, and nimbus clouds in his book. He then explains that cirrus clouds are thin, wispy clouds that predict good weather, cumulus clouds are white and puffy and also predict good weather, but nimbus clouds are dark grey clouds that predict rain. He then asks Martha to predict a cloud, but Martha thinks it just looks like an elephant. She then argues with Skits over whether the cloud looks like a whale or an elephant. Helen then suggests they revise on cloud types.

Outside the grocery store, Martha says she still doesn't get what weather is. Truman explains, and Helen asks him how he knows so much about the weather.

In Truman's room, he takes out his weather prediction kit. Helen asks if his parents bought him it, and Truman says yes. Martha asks why and Truman asks if they've seen *The Wizard of Oz.* Helen remembers the witch of the west and Martha remembers the flying monkeys. Truman says he doesn't remember those but does remember the tornado, which scared him, leading to the parents buying the weather prediction set in hopes of it getting rid of the worry via him gaining understanding. He says it didn't work, but it did lead to him doing nightly weather reports, but he lost his lightning bolt at one point. He looks under the book for it, but Martha walks off, deciding she knows enough about weather now.

In the kitchen, Mariella, Helen, and Jake are in their summer clothes and Martha predicts snow showers with temperatures in the low twenties. This surprises Danny as they live in America and it's July. Martha thinks that the clouds predicted it. The Lorraines look outside, where the clouds clear up.

The next day, Helen is getting ready for school, and Daniel and Mariella are getting ready for work when Martha predicts sunny, mild weather with temperatures in the mid-sixties. Then a thunderstorm happens.

Over the next four days, Martha predicts cloudiness (but then it's sunny), sunniness (but then it's cloudy), cold (but then it's hot), heat (but then there's a freak snowstorm), and on the fifth day, she predicts hail, which surprises the Lorraines (who are getting ready for school and work). She then gives up and walks out.

The next day, Daniel is getting ready for work and Helen and Mariella are doing the dishes. Daniel asks Martha why she is not doing the weather forecast. Martha lies down and says she's doing a horrible job at being a weather dog as all her predictions are wrong. Daniel pets Martha and says that meteorologists are wrong a lot because of the wind changing. Martha thinks Daniel is just lying and she then gets an idea and runs off to talk to Truman.

In Truman's bedroom, he finds the last page of Blue Mangoes but fails to find the lightning bolt. Martha says she's doomed and asks Truman how he predicts the weather. Truman says that he memorised the radio and Martha thinks that's a good idea but wonders if it would be lying.

Martha then tells Windy she can't take the job as she's no good at predicting the weather. Windy says that she would do the prediction, while Martha poses in costumes.

Martha then decides to give Skits the job, because she would get bored, and besides, he'd look cute in a raincoat. Windy and Skits then do the weather report while the Lorraines and Martha watch.

## Characters

* Windy McCloud
* Martha
* Skits
* Helen
* Truman
* Mrs. Oatley
* Mr. Oatley
* Mariella Lorraine
* Daniel Lorraine
* Jake Lorraine
* Sunny (mentioned)

## Vocabulary

forecast, temperature, meteorologist, predict, weather, sunny, shower, snow, rain, cloudy, lightning, nimbus, cirrus, thermometer, cumulus,