Meteorology and forecasting

German builds adjectives from nouns with the suffix -artig, and the result means “of the kind of”, “resembling” — not “being”. The noun loses its capital letter and the new adjective declines like any other: orkanartige Böen, schauerartige Regenfälle. In a weather warning that distinction is not a matter of style. Orkanböen are gusts of hurricane force; orkanartige Böen come close to it and stand one step lower on the warning scale. In the same way schauerartig describes rain that arrives in bursts, the way showers do, even when the day is one of steady rain. The suffix is a deliberate hedge, chosen by the forecaster, and a bulletin repays the same slow reading as a contract: what it calls a thing and what it calls like a thing are two different forecasts.