On Jan 14, 5:51*pm, "Norman" normanthis...@thisbitweather-
consultancy.com wrote:
Aaarrrggghh!!! *One of my pet hates and even the Met Office is at it.
The current early warning for heavy rain contains the following gem:

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* "That rain will be accompanied by strong southerly winds with gusts
to gale or severe gale force over southern and southeastern England."
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I quote from the Met Office's own document titled "Terms used for
describing mean surface wind speed":

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"Beaufort Forces apply ONLY to mean wind speeds (the average over a
given period of time - usually one clock hour) and MUST NOT be used in
reference to gusts"
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The words in capitals in that quote are as given in the Met Office
document.

If the Met Office can't get it right and include sensationalist terms
in their warnings and forecasts can we blame the media for doing the
same. The message would have been correctly conveyed by saying "strong
southerly winds with gusts to 40-45 knots", or the mph equivalents.
Instead, they are giving the impression that there will be severe gales
over southern and southeastern England.

Norman
--
Norman Lynagh
Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire
85m a.s.l.
(remove "thisbit" twice to e-mail)

I really can't see the problem as far as the average
landlubber is concerned and that must constitute the vast majority of
the audience. The term "gale force" when referring to gusts is simply
a shorthand way of saying 39-46 mph and as long as it is not implied
that the mean speed is gale force then I see nothing wrong with it.
On Radio 4 the forecast gusts are always given in mph anyway. In my
own weather diary, when referring to gusts associated with showers or
thunderstorms, I always use Beaufort , eg "heavy shower, gusts to
force 7", or "gust to force 8 when cold front went through 2130Z".
Will I burn in hell for this?

Tudor Hughes