Forecasters attacked again

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

BBC: "Gatwick Airport temporarily closed one of its runways at 17:55 GMT due to un-forecast snow."  (My emphasis)

I knew it was likely to snow even though I live several hundreds of miles away. 

There still seems to be the media's perception that weather forecasts are invariably wrong!  In general, the forecasters have done a superb job predicting this cold spell.

Jack

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

As I've said before, there is no such thing as bad weather - it depends on the needs of the individual.

"Dozens take refuge in pub amid heavy snowfall." (BBC)

Jack

[Ashley haworth-roberts]

I heard a TV report say snow at Gatwick was not forecast. The Met Office warning area included Gatwick.

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

The more significant problem is that if the Met Office and others are wrongly portrayed as being inadequate, then their financial packages are likely to be affected. 

I can remember weather forecasts back in the 1950s when they were indeed a joke.  But not so these days.  Being a pensioner I have a great deal of flexibility.   And my wife has the same luxury.  She had planned to go riding this coming Wednesday but on the basis of the forecast has canceled.  Weather forecasters are very good these day but the media just won't listen to them and come up with their own ideas.

But nothing has changed.  My father was a reporter for the Eastern Daily Press.  He once wrote that it had been so cold that the "Norfolk Broads had frozen from the bottom."   I sometimes had difficulty as a teenager persuading my Dad to listen to me!!!

Jack