Stormy Weather

[french frank]

I note your comments on BBC, the Met Office, and the weather. Sorry to rain on your parade and all that, but for many parts of the UK things can only improve. Forecasts on Radio 4 frequently split England into regions - nothing wrong with that - and then at the end we hear "For Scotland and Northern Ireland....."

So the weather in Lerwick, Enniskillen and the 500 miles between them is the same? Somehow I doubt it very much.

Not sure the Met Ofice can be blamed for that, Mangers . A Radio 4 weather forecast for every area in the UK in sufficient detail would do away with the need for a lot of Radio 4 schedule fillers but wouldn't make for very interesting radio. The BBC does have local and 'regional' stations which presumably cater for the more local needs?

I have the Met Office site bookmarked on my local area, but if something is particularly important it needs to be checked in advance, several times. I won't expect to hear anything useful on Radio 3 (or Radio 4) about my back garden!

When I worked for a local newspaper, as Anna suggests, the daily forecast came from the nearest Met weather station (and on another paper I worked for, subs made their own predictions: if we had Jersey and The Lizard, we took the average of the two as best we could for the Scillies - which for some reason was included in the standard table even though we didn't receive forecasts. And for Weston-super-Mare we called over to one of the subs who lived there ("What was the weather looking like this morning, Neil?")

Never had any complaints that the service was less reliable than any other …

[Serial_Apologist]

I have to say, BBC Radio has treated its weather forecasts pretty shabbily for a number of years now. Probably forgotten now by many was the time when at 5 minutes to the hour, every day before 7, 8 and 1 o'clock, you knew that you would get a full detailed geographical forecast region-by-region in the same order, starting with London and the Home Counties, and taking up the bulk of the 5 minute slot before the news, with just enough time for a brief announcement if necessary.

And as for the format of TV forecasts!!!!

[mangerton]

Not sure the Met Ofice can be blamed for that, Mangers . A Radio 4 weather forecast for every area in the UK in sufficient detail would do away with the need for a lot of Radio 4 schedule fillers but wouldn't make for very interesting radio. The BBC does have local and 'regional' stations which presumably cater for the more local needs?

Yes, indeed, and these local and "regional" stations also exist for towns and cities in England, so on that basis the R4 forecast should just say "England", or possibly, with apologies to Anna, "England, North Wales, and South Wales". Dundee is covered by BBC Radio Scotland; there's no local BBC radio here, or indeed anywhere in the central belt. Lerwick is catered for by BBC Radio Shetland, which is very local. I can't speak for Enniskillen.

This is all part of the way the London-based BBC and meeja in general treat "the provinces". It's been spoken about here before, and no doubt will be again.

I wholeheartedly agree with S_A's remarks in #14582.

[ahinton]

It would appear that a NZ group and a Dutch one are in the running, but the BBC say they would still rely on the Met Office for shipping forecast (what would Radio 4 be without the wonderful shipping forecast?) and severe weather warnings. And surely the fact that all the ‘official’ weather stations are owned and operated by the Met Office means that forecasters would have to get their information from them in the first place? I do hope we won’t be told to get our forecasts via an App, Facebook or Twitter …..

This business about BBC not renewing the Met Office's supply contract seems to me rather like a means whereby hopefully to draw attention away from the eventual demise of the current contracting organisation itself; whether it will lead to, be the consequence of or be thought to be symptomatic of the privatisation of BBC and/or the Met Office is presumably up for grabs and open to debate. I have to admit that I would be more concerned about whether anyone will in the future supply Radio 3 or a recognisable substitute for it than about who supplies weather forecasts on whatever national broadcasting organisation (if any) pertains after BBC bites the dust (if indeed it does)...

[DracoM]

Shipping forecast is not provided by the Met Office.
Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

And it's blowing very hard from SE here.

[subcontrabass]

Shipping forecast is not provided by the Met Office.
Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

MCA get their forecasts from the Met Office: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/w...cast/#?tab=map

[DracoM]

Yes, indeed, BUT I think they write it up for the BBC shipping forecast, do they not?

[french frank]

This business about BBC not renewing the Met Office's supply contract seems to me rather like a means whereby hopefully to draw attention away from the eventual demise of the current contracting organisation itself

Not sure I understood that. Doesn't it attract more attention by ending the association which the two organisations have had since 1922?

[Anna]

I didn't know that the shipping forecast has to be condensed into 370 words and with the information provided it is perfectly possible to compile (and then interpret) a pressure chart for all the coasts of North Western Europe. Isn't that fascinating?

I wonder if the Government will step in and persuade the BBC otherwise, because the Met Office is a quasi-government organisation run for profit and if the BBC goes elsewhere then HM Revenue gets less money in their coffers. Just a thought.

[eighthobstruction]

....how much does the beeb pay the Met Office?....

[BBMmk2]

....how much does the beeb pay the Met Office?....

About that and a bit more, I reckon! :)

[Anna]

....how much does the beeb pay the Met Office?....

Only info available says contract is "worth millions" to Met Office. The presenters on BBC are Met employees so new contractor will have to provide 20 trained staff but there's an article in The Indy by an ex BBC & Sky Met trained tv forecaster which says:
You can have a glance at Europe and you immediately have an idea of the weather there. Whereas tomorrow, for example, there will be two different pressure systems over Britain. We have got a very diverse meteorological situation in the UK and you just can’t broad-brush it.

Using foreign forecasters would mean the BBC just wouldn’t have the nuances to predict weather here. You could spend half an hour doing a detailed forecast for the UK. It will certainly lead to a less-detailed forecast on the TV. But we need detailed TV forecasts. If you look back to the hurricane of 1987, so many things have changed since then. The data the Met Office now uses is collected from aircraft, buoys out at sea and ships. This information is pertinent to the UK and not anywhere else. And I can’t see any other forecasting body being that diligent and collecting that data to build accurate forecasts.

It could be that the BBC plans to concentrate on weather forecasts online and on mobile apps

The last bit is what I said upthread - bet it'll be all Apps and Androids!

[Serial_Apologist]

About an hour ago it suddenly came over dark here, with raggedy cloud almost low enough to touch. There then followed half an hour of absolutely torrential rain, with rain gutters unable to cope, as I sat here looking out in expectation of the first lightning. Then the rain slowly let up, and ten minutes later came the one and only clap of thunder. Or rather, faint rumble. What a disappointment! My afternoon half hour constitutional would appear nevertheless to have gone for a bang for today, with deep pools of water everywhere, moderate rain still falling, and more dark skies approaching.

3.51 Edit: Well I decided to test out my new brolly anyway, and The Good Lord supplied half an hour of more heavy rain and thunder.

Brolly works wonderfully; footwear sadly found wanting.

[Serial_Apologist]

Moderate rain has just set in here, and looks likely to be hanging about for the next 24 hours at least. Anyone west of a line from about Plymouth to Middlesbrough might just about get away with showers and funny periods (as me mum used to say); our weather isn't expected to dry up until Thursday, though I think their 18 degrees C max for Friday here is a bit on the pessimistic side.

Shoes not yet dried out!

[BBMmk2]

Talk about rain today! :)