Twenty five years ago, as New Zealand charged through a swag of market reforms, economists briefly held an exulted status in the nation's daily dialogue.
They were regarded as high priests of commentary, if not always commonsense. As the economic upheavals receded, so too did the voices of financial analysis.
The new mediums - at least this autumn - are meteorologists. Whereas we might once have got by with Jim Hickey or Karen Olsen after the 6 o'clock news, the go-to weather people are on Twitter and Facebook.
Hickey and Olsen both knew their isobars from their isotherms but were confined to their broadcast medium.
With rivers rising, slips blocking roads and storm surges churning along the coastline for the best part of two weeks, demand has exploded for instant forecasts. On Thursday morning, with predictions that Auckland yet again lay in the path of "extreme weather", MetService was trending on Google, meaning the lousy outlook was a hot topic.
