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 . 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 . 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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