On Jan 4, 11:58*am, "Togless" wrote:
"ronaldbutton" wrote:
I see from todays papers that the Met Office had secretly forecast the
severe weather for December...

Don't believe everything (/anything?) you read in the papers... *:-)

Here's what the Met Office says:

"The first time a cold spell was mentioned on our website was in our 30-day
forecast issued at the end of October - it provided early indications of the
onset of a cold spell from late November."

So it evidently wasn't a secret.

Blimy. If the MetO takes credit for everything that is mentioned in
that 16-30 day tea-break precis, almost every weather event will be
covered and they would be the doyens of LRF! I doubt you'll find them
admitting to, or even keeping a record of, every event that is
mentioned in it and doesn't happen. Indeed they don't appear to keep
any records at all.

I have thought of doing a continuing analysis of the 6-15-day forecast
and the 16-30 day forecast, but the thought didn't last long as
there's next to nothing to be gained. The far end of the 6-15 day
forecast is unlikely to happen and the 16-30 day forecast is
completely ignorable, as you have no idea as to whether the content
therein is going to be in any way correct. It might have been *in* the
tea boy's ramblings at the end of October, but what indication was
there (is there ever?) that the MetO thought that this particular
piece of 30-day wisdom was going to be correct, at the time it was
written?