Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 01/04/2011 1:07:56 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
In October the forecaster privately warned the Government - with whom it has a contract - that Britain was likely to face an extremely cold winter.
It kept the prediction secret, however, after facing severe criticism over the accuracy of its long-term forecasts.
The Met Office eventually issued a public warning about the early onset of winter a month later, just days before snow and ice covered much of Britain and temperatures plummeted to the lowest on record.
Motoring organisations and passenger groups said yesterday that the delay hampered preparations for winter.
It has also been disclosed that the BBC is so concerned about the accuracy of the Met Office’s predictions that it has decided to publish independent assessments of the forecasters' performance on its website.
Roger Harrabin, an environment analyst at the BBC, told the Radio Times: “The trouble is that we simply don’t know how much to trust the Met Office. How often does it get the weather right and wrong. And we don’t know how it compares with other, independent forecasters. ....
[snip]
The Met Office stopped making its long-term forecasts public in March after a series of major gaffes. ....
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
But did their unions get people killed by a deliberate slowdown in snow removal?
So the “gaffes” turn out to be predictions that things are going to be warm, when they turn out to be cool. (Gee, I wonder why they would make a mistake in that direction.) Then, when they have an inkling that things really are likely to be cold, they sit on their hands.
They just can’t bring themselves to predict colder anything. It isn’t PC for a liberal.
I guess the Met Office needs to figure out that politics and weather prediction are like oil and water.
An “environmental analyst” has trust issues? The guy is paid to lie (by the BBC) so he assumes everyone else is doing it.
Why does one need a warning that it’s going to be cold or an even unusually cold winter, so as to “prepare’ for it?
Bump for later
Wouldn’t common sense mean that everyone always prepare for the worst possible weather, summer or winter?
Do we need the gummint to tell us what to do?
A warning would make the Global Warming crowd look like idiots.
You haven’t heard? Warming causes cooling. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The Met Office is on a hiding to nothing with these seasonal forecasts. They have always come with a health warning (ignored by the media) that the probability attached to the predicted outcome is low. When they’re wrong (as they inevitably sometimes are) they’re ridiculed or damned as being politically influenced. When they’re right (as they have been more often than not) they’re ignored. When, to avoid these absurdities, they stop publishing seasonal forecasts altogether, they’re condemned for secrecy. You have to be someting of a masochist to be a meteorologist in Britain.
British "health care" is in the sewer along with most other British endeavors and America's will join them there.
BTW, "Royalty" was a term used by animal breeders to denote the horrible results of inbreeding; the feeble-minded, the culls.
The Brit's are addicted to it...
Always wrong the same way.
“Roger Harrabin, an environment analyst at the BBC, told the Radio Times: “The trouble is that we simply don’t know how much to trust the Met Office. How often does it get the weather right and wrong. And we don’t know how it compares with other, independent forecasters. “
Well MR ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYST, the solution is a pencil and paper. Record the prediction, check it against the actual results , and tally up the score at the end of the period.
I would be worried that pipes would freeze, etc.
—I guess if you live in a bitter cold area already, you may not worry, but houses and infrastructure are built with the local weather in mind.
I live in central Illinois and it gets pretty cold here in the winter, humid and hot in the summer. I'm prepared for both.
These people in the U.K. that expect the government to warn them when it's going to be extra cold, where it's normally cold anyway, depend on nanny government to tell them when to change baby's nappies.
The Met Office has one prime directive and that is to protect the validity of the ‘global warming crisis’. Everything else, including weather prediction, is secondary.
Towns need to know how much road salt to stockpile, and building owners might like to know what to expect for heating expenses so they can budget in advance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.