Stormy Weather
BBC NEWS | UK | Met Office seeks simple forecasts
Television weather forecasters may soon use simpler terms for their predictions, the Met Office has said.
The move follows an internal review in which Met Office staff gave their views on how best to portray the weather.
Suggestions include using "patchy rain" rather than "showery outbreaks", and "warm for most", rather than "chilly in isolated areas".
The Met Office - which trains BBC forecasters - said the idea was to make forecasts "clearer and more relevant".
Oh Dear - "More relevant" if you see that phrase you know it is bad news. There is a place for simple forecasts, but there is also a place for serious forecasts that treat the viewer as an adult with some knowledge - I think though that place is the Internet not the TV. Rarely do I get real information from the TV anymore, just some froth and filler to the stories.
Comments
but does this make the weather more 'inclusive'?
Posted by: Mr Free Market | October 5, 2005 9:31 AM
My radiator breaks and the hotel room is absolutely freezing, and I'm ashamed, y'know, because she is going to come into a cold room, so I go into the bathroom and I turn on the hot water in the shower, which is an old Brooklyn trick to heat the apartment, and hot water comes down and billows of steam come into the living room. And icecold air is seeping in under the windowsill and the two fronts meet in the living room, and it starts to rain in my hotel room. I'm standing there in the rain, and I did not do well with the girl.
Woody Allen
Posted by: Mark Holland | October 5, 2005 10:29 AM
Actually I was just saying to Mrs Gun Culture t'other night how the weather was too much waffle. All I want to know is if tomorrow is going to be wet, windy, cold, sunny or warm.
Five minutes worth of rambling tosh at 10:40pm is likely to make me glaze over and not take anything in at all.
On the other hand I have the attention span of a gnat.
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October 5, 2005 10:56 AM
It's raining so hard here in Italy, that some rivers are now flooding. Where's the sun? Where are holidays? Already forgotten....
Posted by: Cri | October 5, 2005 12:51 PM
The shipping forecast hasn't been dumbed down yet - the code words still mean what they always did. The times of the broadcasts have been messed about, though.
You're right, the Internet is the place for proper forecasts. I find www.theyr.net one of the best, but there are many.
Posted by: Andrew Duffin | October 5, 2005 3:24 PM
Its fucking pissing it down here at the moment, in fact it pisses down almost every day.
.
Posted by: Anoneumouse | October 5, 2005 6:36 PM
I didn't know weather forecasts needed to be 'dumbed down'........
:)
Posted by: circe | October 5, 2005 9:27 PM
Watch the weather reports in any local TV new broadcast in the US, then you will truly understand the phrase "dumbing down". Right now, in southern California, we are experiencing dry and warm days because of the Santa Ana's(hot wind blowing off- shore) and according to the weathermen, we are all going to die. That this is the worst wind since time began, and did I mention that we are all going to die.
Posted by: Pat Patterson | October 6, 2005 3:11 AM