Viewing 5 posts - 81 through 85 (of 85 total)
  • Have the BBC lost the plot?
  • irc
    Full Member

    Their climate forecasts aren’t any better than their weather forecasts.

    imnotverygood
    Full Member

    This is common to all forecasters. They get more accurate closer to the time. Is this really a surprise?

    I’m not saying they are particularly worse than others, but the Met Office does seem to run a good PR machine which gives the impression they are better than they are. For me, as a cyclist, the 5 day forecast is almost valueless. Since part of my job involves observing the weather which helps to provide data for the Met Office, I do understand a bit about forecasts.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    but the Met Office does seem to run a good PR machine which gives the impression they are better than they are

    No idea what you are talking about. I’ve never seen any publicity for the Met office. What I have done is read random third parties talking about them and quoting various sources that I cannot bring to mind.

    I also keep an eye on the forecast and it always seems pretty good, and definitely way better than the accuweather app on my phone which is a joke. The Met Office seem to have forecast the current wet weather bang on wherever I’ve been – going out a day or so. Yesterday and Monday IIRC they said it’d clear up by 6 today, but in actual fact there was a clear spell around two then it rained again until about 4.30 or so, roughly.

    imnotverygood
    Full Member

    Well, for example, they often trumpet that the three day forecast now is more accurate than the one day forecast was in 1980. But that only relates to sea level pressure. Granted, the QNH is always going to be significant, but it doesn’t tell you whether they actually get the forecast correct. In my view, they largely don’t as the forecast stretches away in time. At least the bloke with the website has made some attempt to gauge their accuracyand comes up with a figure in the 30% area, whci seems about right to me.

    sockpuppet
    Full Member

    Well, the TAF is provided by the Met Office & funnily enough, doesn’t really seem to be any more accurate than the BBC/Met Office forecast.

    TAFs are really very accurate, within their limited scope.

    More about knowing you won’t be unable to land at the end of a long flight (cloud base, vis, crosswind) than forecasting the weather in terms of ‘will it be sunny?’ A very reliable but technical product.

    That said free apps that give you worldwide TAFs are great!

Viewing 5 posts - 81 through 85 (of 85 total)

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