A few hours ago I watched Jack Scott give a weather forecast. A chilly
north-westerly airstream, some sharp showers and sunny intervals. Reads rather
like today?

The explanation is that I have been watching coverage of the 1979 General
Election night programme which is being replayed today - all day! - on the BBC
Parliament Channel. (OK, I have to make a confession, I am a worse political
addict than a weather addict, but wish to point out that I have not been
watching it continuously, not quite).

By late afternoon today we had got to the 'morning after' bit of the programme
and they went over to Jack Scott, Snr. BBC forecaster of the day, to give the
forecast for the 4th of May 1979. The forecast used the old magnetic symbols of
course (mostly for sunshine and showers and wintry showers in places). Jack
assured the viewer that the snow was clearing Lincolnshire..). The highest
temperature that I recall seeing on the chart was only 10 C over S E England.

The weather situation was not that different to that of today but the airstream
was colder (500mbar heights of less than 528dm. are shown on the chart archive
at http://www.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsreaeur.html). It must have been a
grim ending to a miserable, cold, wet winter and spring. It was noticeable how
well wrapped up people were in outdoor shots, complete with overcoats etc. It
made the footage look more than 25 years old indeed.

I will spare you any details of the political coverage (most people probably
remember what that election led to....).

Back to BBC Parliament channel for some more.....

Julian
Julian Mayes West Molesey Surrey

"JJCMayes1" schreef in bericht
...

I will spare you any details of the political coverage (most people
probably
remember what that election led to....).

It was leading to an ice age, wasn't it, Julian??
Thanks for pointing out -- I had a look in the Dutch weatherreports of May
1979. I guess it's not surpirsing we also had a cold first 10 days of May --
temperature varying from 5 - 11 C; (long term mean 16 C) . Strong
North-Northwesterlies. However after May 11 wind turned south and temps rose
exponentially to 26 C on May 15 (wonderful day!). To drop again to about 14
C on th 17th of May. Very instable month all over; with fluctuating temps.
l' Histoire se répète :-).

Wijke
SE Flevopolder
Centre of the Netherlands

I will spare you any details of the political coverage (most people
probably
remember what that election led to....).


Yes Julian unfortunately most of us will remember the start of the demise of
British manufacturing
best regards,
Alan

--
Wirral,Merseyside. 53.1 N 3.0 W 40m amsl
http://www.wirralcam.com/frame.htm

I remember a snow cover on the Downs on the morning of the 2nd May after a
May Day max of 5.6C. I was running a Weather Station at Caterham,Surrey at
186 metres. There was an air frost on the 2nd-4th. By mid May the
temperature had risen to 26.5C.

Ian Currie-Coulsdon





"Alan Duckers" wrote in message
...

I will spare you any details of the political coverage (most people
probably
remember what that election led to....).


Yes Julian unfortunately most of us will remember the start of the demise
of
British manufacturing
best regards,
Alan

--
Wirral,Merseyside. 53.1 N 3.0 W 40m amsl
http://www.wirralcam.com/frame.htm