On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 13:48:22 -0000, "Philip Eden"
philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:

The OED, after giving us the familiar meaning, goes on to
say: "... hence, any storm or tempest in which the wind blows
with terrific violence." The citations which follow show that this
second meaning was in general use by the 1620s, some sixty
years even before the present spelling of the word was in place ...
and I suspect just a little before meteorologists came up with
their classification of tropical storms or Admiral Beaufort
with his scale of wind force.

Thank goodness someone "in the know", like you, is adding reason to
the debate. I'd add the following:

Defending what was plainly an incorrect or at best misleading forecast
*to the general public* by quoting technicalities (the meteorological
definition of a hurricane) simply won't wash. A Met Office forecasting
error occurred and Michael Fish was their mouthpiece, as far as the
general public was concerned. A high profile weather presenter like
Michael would inevitably have to take some flak along with the Met
Office.

Bad luck made it worse for Michael, of course. If the references to a
Western Atlantic hurricane had occurred on any other day of the year,
they would have been forgotten about. But of all days, it had to be
*this* day. It matters not whether Michael failed to forecast
hurricane force gusts, hurricane force mean wind speeds or the real
thing; as soon as the Great Storm occurred, Michael was in the mire -
because plainly, *something* of hurricane force did occur. Obviously,
the Met Office were in the mire, too - and in official circles, far
deeper than Michael, I suspect.

As for the technical defence of "it wasn't tropical", that's clearly
ludicrous because the references occurred in a broadcast to the
general public and the technical definition wasn't explained.
Hurricane force gusts occurred widely and mean wind speeds reached
hurricane force in a few places on the mainland. Hurricane strength is
defined in the US by the highest "sustained" (1 minute mean) wind
speed and as it came onshore, our Storm certainly met the definition
of a Category 1 Hurricane - in terms of wind speeds. The public and
press couldn't care two hoots whether or not it had tropical
characteristics as that doesn't much affect the risk of damage, injury
and death. Everyone knows that "hurricane" is worse than "storm", we
had something worse than a "storm" and it wasn't forecast.

Michael and the Met Office were in the mire from the moment he said
"no hurricane", or words to that effect, without adding "but there
will be hurricane force winds tonight". He should put up his hands,
admit "it was a fair cop, Guv" and stop trying to defend it. Having
said all that, I am a Michael Fish fan.

--
Dave