"Lawrence13" wrote in message
...
On Sunday, 7 October 2012 13:17:30 UTC+1, Freddie wrote:
One of the forecasts is for a location, the other for a wide area.

That would likely explain some of the difference in temperature.

Also, one of the forecasts uses a single word to represent the

weather over a period of time at a location. The other one uses

several sentences to try and communicate the weather over a period of

time.

I note that the rain in the forecast is not due till the end of the

night. So if you have to provide a description of the night's weather

in one word, which word should you use? Wet, to represent a small

interval of time right at the end of the forecast? Or dry, to

represent the other 11 hours of the night?



These are communication challenges that the MetO are very well aware

of, as they have been in this game for a long time. They do give

guidance on interpretation of forecasts too - and the emphasis of

that guidance is (and always has been) to use the human-written text

forecast. Location-based forecasts are there to use in addition, but

the MetO advise that you remain aware of their shortcomings.



--

Freddie

Bayston Hill

Shropshire

102m AMSL

http://www.hosiene.co.uk/weather/

https://twitter.com/#!/BaystonHillWxￜfor hourly reportsￜ

Well I realise that one covered a wider area but it did include London
whereas -was the other the City of London, if so then the City of London
must have it's own micro climate where it only rains in the surrounding
areas.

I'm perfectly happy with a general regional forecast , all this Statement of
Purose tripe has the MetO trying to forecast for individual square meters
and apologising when they can't.
===========================

UKMO have a problem.
Some in UKMO want to automate everything quickly, a lot don't fully
understand meteorology (branding, sales and other staff) but can see a
massive "business" advantage in automated site forecasts, hence they are
seen as the future. But UKMO also have a responsibility for warning the
nation and still a commitment to human based forecasts, the two sometimes
don't mix well together.
Solutions are being looked into.
Another problem is that UKMO no longer has a network of local forecast
offices (weather centres) anymore (cut to save a few pennies in 2005/2006)
and hence no way of editing centrally based forecasts based on local
information. I could go on .......

Will
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