Useles weather reports

2Phat4Rapha

What is it with the BBC weather reports these days? They getting them from Lidl or what? Last night all their charts were solid blue in the SE forecasting heavy winds and biblical rains by 6am. 6am news this was put back to 8am. So I cancelled the Sat morn 0730. I don't mind getting a bit wet but I didn't want to ride in wind and heavy rain. It's now 1430 and we've had nothing but a very slight mist and now the sun's out! :evil:

I mean, it's nice watching the girls in Lycra posts an all that but why do I keep believing these forecasts.

MeddlE

BBC weather reports rank up there with Gordon Brown for trustworthyness, I think they use a magic 8 ball or pull pieces of paper from a hat. They certainly don't predict the weather.

geoff_ss

Most of my activities need, or have needed, wind information which normal BBC weather forecasts rarely give. So I use http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ which is primarily for cross-country glider pilots but I find it useful to see if it's worth preparing model planes for a flying session of if it's going to be a hard bike ride.

The shipping forecasts are quite good and give precise information which can help you to create a synoptic chart. Every word has a meaning - like 'imminent' means within the next 6 hours IIRC (it's some time since I did my meteorology course for sailing).

Geoff

hugo15

Another user of XC weather here.

The BBC forecasts are rubbish at best. Today it was supposed to rain all day............. we got a couple of showers............................... :roll:

Cressers

Has there been a recent BBC forcast without a Severe Weather warning?

deptfordmarmoset

Geoff_SS wrote:

Most of my activities need, or have needed, wind information which normal BBC weather forecasts rarely give. So I use http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ which is primarily for cross-country glider pilots but I find it useful to see if it's worth preparing model planes for a flying session of if it's going to be a hard bike ride.

The shipping forecasts are quite good and give precise information which can help you to create a synoptic chart. Every word has a meaning - like 'imminent' means within the next 6 hours IIRC (it's some time since I did my meteorology course for sailing).

Geoff

Aha, someone who understands the shipping forecast! Something that I haven't figured out is the distinction between ''veering'' and ''backing.'' You might get ''south-easterly veering southerly'' and that seems pretty straightforward, but what's happening with something like ''south-easterly backing south-westerly?'' I understand that in both cases the wind starts off in one direction and changes to another, but don't understand the different terms.

nasahapley

deptfordmarmoset wrote:

Aha, someone who understands the shipping forecast! Something that I haven't figured out is the distinction between ''veering'' and ''backing.'' You might get ''south-easterly veering southerly'' and that seems pretty straightforward, but what's happening with something like ''south-easterly backing south-westerly?'' I understand that in both cases the wind starts off in one direction and changes to another, but don't understand the different terms.

Ooh ooh I know this one! 'Backing' means the wind moves in an anti-clockwise direction, 'veering' means clockwise. So 'northerly backing southerly' means it goes through westerly to get there, 'northerly veering southerly' means it goes through easterly to get there (is that right Geoff?)

Tbh I find the BBC forecast generally ok, and in my experience it tends to veer (ha ha) on the pessimistic side which is usually better than it being too optimistic. I expect it's often difficult to distill a full forecast down to easily understood chunks while retaining accuracy. If there's a 70% chance of it chucking it down all day and a 30% chance of it being just a bit grey, then the shortened version is going to say it'll chuck it down, and people then complain when it's just a bit grey. The weather itself at the moment, now that's cr@p! (and no I don't work for the BBC, or the Met Office!)

frenchfighter

metcheck.com

Not only is it accurate it is easy to read.

marksatblue

metcheck.com looks great - pity the scottish weather doesn't for the next few days.

Sunday afternoon for 'tress, then...

keef66

I just look at the rainfall radar and click on Play. Watching how the rainfall has moved in the last few hours enables me to have a pretty good idea about what is likely to happen in the next few.

They give me the data and I do the forecasting. All too frequently they forecast rain for the south east, but it fizzles out before it reaches us. Saturday was a classic example. Mind you, they were right about the wind on sunday.

john-e-big-guns

Get ya self a 'Clump' of seaweed...and work off that ...far more accurate than the weather forcasters

deptfordmarmoset

nasahapley wrote:

deptfordmarmoset wrote:

Aha, someone who understands the shipping forecast! Something that I haven't figured out is the distinction between ''veering'' and ''backing.'' You might get ''south-easterly veering southerly'' and that seems pretty straightforward, but what's happening with something like ''south-easterly backing south-westerly?'' I understand that in both cases the wind starts off in one direction and changes to another, but don't understand the different terms.

Ooh ooh I know this one! 'Backing' means the wind moves in an anti-clockwise direction, 'veering' means clockwise. So 'northerly backing southerly' means it goes through westerly to get there, 'northerly veering southerly' means it goes through easterly to get there (is that right Geoff?)

Tbh I find the BBC forecast generally ok, and in my experience it tends to veer (ha ha) on the pessimistic side which is usually better than it being too optimistic. I expect it's often difficult to distill a full forecast down to easily understood chunks while retaining accuracy. If there's a 70% chance of it chucking it down all day and a 30% chance of it being just a bit grey, then the shortened version is going to say it'll chuck it down, and people then complain when it's just a bit grey. The weather itself at the moment, now that's cr@p! (and no I don't work for the BBC, or the Met Office!)

Cheers, nasahapley. So, it turns on how the wind's turning. It also turns out that I didn't actually know what ''veering'' meant in this context. Oh well, you live and learn....