Mr Eubank: As far as I understand you are heading the specialized team of weather forecasters during the upcoming Olympic Winter Games. It is indeed great to see such an experienced meteorologist to head this important team.
The Games are only a bit over a week away, and some teams are already arriving to Utah. As a host for the Latvian men's ice-hockey team, I am excited for the Games, and to meet the team here in Utah this Friday. Along with all the athletes and the media, we are expecting tens of thousands of people from other countries visiting this state. The largest majority of them are not very proficient in U.S. customary units which are currently in use in this country. They will have no idea what "28 degrees Fahrenheit" is, or what "6 to 12 inches of snow" means, or whether "15 mph wind speed" is fast or slow. In fact, the United States, unfortunately, is the only major industrialized country left in the world that uses non-metric units. You yourself indicated this fact in one of the Eyewitness to the Games shows on KSL. During that show, you also indicated that the forecasting for the Games will have to be done in metric (SI) units, as per requirements from the international sport organizations. Based on all of this, I kindly ask you to please consider putting metric equivalents into media your forecasts (TV, web, radio) as well, as a courtesy to these thousands of visitors, and the teams. It will be a tremendous help to them, and it will help U.S. citizens become more familiar with the measurement language the rest of the world uses, and which, hopefully, this country will eventually use as well. I have a van in my possession which will be used to transport the team officials, and I already set the radio in it to KSL 1160 AM as well, so our guests can listen to the weather forecasts on it while I am driving them to the venues. I appreciate your consideration to our guests: athletes, and spectators. I look forward to seeing SI units in your forecasts. Thank you. Sincerely, Nikolay O. Malyarov
