Meanwhile... on The Weather Channel...

Jim Cantore Confuses the Hell Out of Colleagues

Starts Spouting Seemingly Nonsensical Tales About Shark Oil

In what can only be described as “The Weather Channel at its finest,” while covering tropical activity in the Atlantic basin, Jim Cantore started ranting about shark oil in Bermuda. His colleagues, unsure whether this was an untimely stroke or a thunder snow-style eruption of weather enthusiasm, meteorologist Jen Carfagno giggled hesitantly before managing to say something about wanting to know more about what he was talking about, insinuating she may look it up on their next commercial break. It was a fine performance of avoiding saying what her head was loudly interjecting, “The hell are you talking about, Jim?”

(Photo by Akil Simmons) Jim Cantore reporting for The Weather Channel at Elbow Beach.

After more live coverage, the shark oil situation once again reared its ugly head, this time by Cantore inquiring whether Carfagno had a chance to look it up, to which she had yet to do so far. Cantore started to explain that Bermudans would look at fish oil, to which he then specified shark oil – to see if it was cloudy and that is how they would know that a storm was coming.

Unlike Carfagno, I had quickly looked up what the hell Jimmy was talking about and saw something about a shark oil barometer, which would mean that the oil he was referring to would be view in a weather glass that was holding the liquid. But if you didn’t know that, the way he described it would lead you to believe that Bermudans stared at the vast sea waiting for it to change colors in general, which sounds insane.

Eventually Cantore busted out his phone on-air and read aloud what shark oil was all about. According to Bermuda’s official website, shark oil is used in homespun barometers:

Shark oil has long been part of sailors’ arsenal when it comes to predicting the weather – especially hurricanes. While there's no scientific basis for the phenomenon, many Bermudians on the island trust it implicitly. This homespun barometer has mysteriously yielded accurate results time and time again.

The shark oil barometer contains – you guessed it – shark oil that has been extracted from the liver of a “dusky” (or puppy… aw, sadface) shark and filtered through a cheese cloth before being sealed into a bottle. The bottle is hung outside the home where its condition is observed to indicate – and even forecast – the weather.

Photo courtesy of thebermudian.com

Here’s what Google’s AI bot summed up regarding how to interpret your shark oil barometer: 

• Clear oil: Indicates fair weather.

• Cloudy or milky white oil: Signals an approaching storm.

• Spinning oil: May indicate a hurricane.

• Sloping oil: Can foretell a change in wind direction.

There’s no exact science that backs up these barometers but from what I’ve found, it seems like one of the most agreed upon and coolest theories is that atmosphere shifts affects the oil in a live shark to serve as an alert for them to move to deeper water before a storm. So why not throw that shit in a bottle and have it keep your wind chimes company for generations to come? Amiright?