"Michael Mcneil" wrote in message
news:8d450545ef4145e3eb396bf00033045d.45219@mygate .mailgate.org...
| "General Von Clinkerhoffen" wrote in message
|
|
| It's because the Met Office is a commercial (small c) organisation, you
| don't get the good usable stuff unless you hand over your credit card
| number!
|
| And I thought the USA was the only superpower with monkey in control of
| the government?
| (No, not really.)
|
| This sort of thing is proof that democracy died a long time ago. If
| there ever was such a thing.
|
| So what is this sort of illegal meritocracy called?
|
| (Weather) for the select through the autocratic from the masses?
|
| Perhaps we aught to ask around the other sites we visit to see if anyone
| ever uses the Met office website. A sort of poll.
|
| Somehow I doubt they do; so much for the public health and safety items
| posted there.
|

It's easy to moan, but...

In the 1970s, I studied for a Physics/Meteorology degree at the University
of Reading; then, as now, one of the finest meteorology departments in the
world.
I can remember how we used to crowd round the fax machine (a large grey
"MuFax" which produced documents about the current A3 size) when the next
charts were due, and we watched them painfully appear.

Now I can go to

http://www.itadvice.co.uk/weatherjack/wx.htm

and select the "forecast charts - all one page" option and watch them come
up just like that! Not to mention (from the "Expert DIY" option), output
from the best weather forecasting models around the world. 30 years ago in
my "Applied Meteorology" class, the data logger was the cutting edge of
technology about which everyone was raving.

The internet has given us all access to such data which is beyond the
wildest dreams of research students 30 years or so ago. Be thankful you
have facilities and access to science that to us 40 or 50 somethings was
only science fiction in our youth. And, if you look around and use the
facilities so kindly provided by people like Jack Harrison, much of it is
still free.

The weather radar on the Met Ofiice site may not be as good as on pay sites
like AvBrief, but it is normally current and there is sufficient detail to
be able to interpret what is going on. I can pick individual storm cells in
it - what resolution do you need for personal interest use? It was only 3
or 4 years ago that people on this ng were calling for *any* sort of weather
radar data to be available in the UK. And I don't even need to go online
for sattelite pictures - SKY carries them on Sky News interactive. They may
not to the standard of Dundee University or West Cheshire, but if you allow
for the generated land image being a little too far east and know what you
are looking at, they can be used for a "nowcast".

I have no vested interested to fuel this reply. I can just remember how it
was until only a few years ago, so am grateful for what I can get now.
--
- Yokel -
oo oo
OOO OOO
OO 0 OO
) ( I ) (
) ( /\ ) (

"Yokel" now posts via a spam-trap account.
Replace my alias with stevejudd to reply.