Talking about the weather isn’t just a way to make chitchat — these days, it can turn you into an internet darling.
Take, for example, Saya Hiyama, a weather forecaster for YouTube livestreaming channel Weathernews. During her Feb. 26 shift, the 27-year-old announcer was engaged in a bit of banter on the game of shogi when news of an earthquake came through. Naturally, Hiyama professionally shifted from playful to serious in a heartbeat.
A snippet of this pivot — lasting 16 seconds in total — quickly went viral, spread via random Twitter accounts and web-aggregation sites such as Boing Boing. The clip got the most attention on YouTube (it’s currently at more than 16.8 million views), where viewers gleefully riffed on what they were seeing — “Me when I’m playing video games then suddenly remember that I have an assignment due at midnight,” read one comment.
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