What happens
A junior meteorologist at a San Francisco weather bureau notices an unusual weather pattern developing over the Pacific and names it Mariah. As the storm grows and sweeps toward the California coast, the chief forecaster must decide whether to predict rain, knowing how much depends on his words. Telephone and power lines, the mountain highway and the road crews who keep it open all come under pressure as the weather turns. This episode of the CBS Radio Workshop, first broadcast on February 10, 1956, was written by George Stewart and adapted and directed by William N. Robeson, with William Conrad as narrator.
San Francisco, the Pacific Ocean, the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Donner Pass area of California
Characters: Junior meteorologist, Chief forecaster, Mariah, Road superintendent, Load dispatcher, Brownington steamship company official
Listen for: The junior meteorologist naming storms and the chief forecaster weighing how to phrase his rain forecast
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.