Stormy forecast
| 15:24 UK time, Monday, 10 March 2008
At 5.10am, as I left the house in Folkestone this morning, I had an appreciation of how bad the weather was going to be – I knew from the weekend forecast that the worst would be along the south coast, with breakfast time being the peak and I wasn’t let down. The train into London was buffeted all the way with several pieces of debris on the track causing some concern.
Forecasters at the Met Office were alerting us as early as last week, and yesterday the areas for likely disruption were clearly identified. But the gales were not the full story, as the strong winds coincided with spring high tides, increasing the risk of coastal flooding.
At the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Weather Centre we have to weigh up the need to give viewers a steer on what is ahead but balance that with crying wolf. On Sunday we were confident that the winds would be strong but exactly who would be in the firing line needed to be watched. The Met Office computer model is run every six hours and with each successive run we monitored the track and intensity, firming up on the forecast.
When I arrived at TV centre the weather team were already in full swing with Matt Taylor on Breakfast and Chris Fawkes on Radio 4.
The winds were expected to continue to gust to 75 to 85mph at times though the rest of today especially in exposed locations. The weather team were reporting on the current weather situation using the latest satellite and radar data with league tables of the highest gusts. Our durations were extended on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News 24 to two minutes 30 seconds so that we could provide the additional details required. The worst hit areas were parts of Wales, western and southern parts of England where all emergency services were put on alert.
As the stormy weather lashed parts of the country, leaving homes without power and disrupting travel, the team kept updating the forecast and bringing the very latest information to viewers on TV, radio, online and mobile. The highest reported gust was 95mph on the Isle of Wight at the time of writing and this news was first to air on the One O’Clock News with Kirsty McCabe.
Very few places escaped the bad weather with northern parts of the UK seeing both rain and snowfall – up to 15cm was forecast over the Scottish Highlands.
As the thunder rumbles around TVC, the word is that more gales are on the way for Wednesday – so keep watching!
Comments
Yeah, but all that spam I panic-bought has still got to be eaten. :(
Think you failed actually: suspect the instinct is to minimise the worst case loss (to you),ie a Michael Fish or M11 snow event,and to discount the rationalism of probabilities. There is a heck of a difference between a forecast of stormy weather with the possibility it may be stronger than expected,and the blanketing of the country with severe weather warnings prompting news desks to flood (!) the country with reporters. Nice try at pre-empting the (justified critical comment though.
My goodness ! Whatever next ? There was actually a flash of ISOBARS on the weather forcast at 6.30pm !!
The pictures of clouds or expected rain intensity is very good, but to get a real idea of wind speed and/or direction, you just cant beat the good old isobars !!
PLEASE bring them back as a regular feature of the new graphics if strong winds are expected.
Oh puleez.
This storm was a gale surely with a high spring tide. Surely more wind was coming from the reporters positioned in some very calm looking location. More reporters than isobars methinks.
au Contraire Mr. Chapman I think the 'crying wolf' balance was way to one side yesterday. The 1987 failure has permeated your weather warnings and news reports since.
not convinced.