BBC Weather hysteria

[peter]

Why, why, why has the BBC taken to providing a National Hysteria forecast instead of a national Weather forecast.

Being an IT person I appreciate that building a forecast involves models and percentage chances of things happening a particular way, bit like betting on the gee-gees.

I also appreciate that local authorities can no longer afford to fling salt around with gay abandon each time there is a chance of icing and that 90% of drivers on the road are unable to cope with even an inch of snow. I always have fun watching people living up the side road near my house puttting it in first and flooring the throttle to drive up the gentle slope, then looking puzzled as they go gently sideways.

But why does the weather forecast always go to doom gloom and end-of-days everey time there is the remotest chance of a snowfalke landing in the UK?

[pigletwillie]

The Blair Broadcasting Service is indeed Peter, a harbinger of doom regarding the weather. Perhaps as were all busy wondering actually how much snow will fall other more interesting news items get "buried".

or am I just being cynical

[lizzie]

It's part of this nanny state that we all live in. The powers that be think that we have to be spoon fed everything so we don't get upset.

During half term, there haven't been many kids out and about because the weather has been "too bad."

If the parents let the kids out, well wrapped up, in the cold it would do their immune system the power of good. My son and nephew have been sailing twice and now they're on a pony day.

Maybe i'm just weird and a cruel parent!!

[Allan]

Apart from gross errors particularly of timing the bit that gets me on the regular forecasts is that a drop of rain is almost always greeted as bad news, dry weather is good. Have they forgotten that the whole country is short of water, and particularly the Southeast.
I long for the return of Isobar charts, you know what's coming.
Next, why on earth do they have the briefest of forecasts in the morning and neglecting the long-term element then, even on the interactive version, no excuse there. Is it just to cram in plugs for programmes I never watch.
Why can't we have a full page option on BBC interactive, Sky manage it.
Lastly, this nonstop scan round the country makes me giddy, and how can one look at the map and see the time indicator simultaneously, when that can get hidden by other info anyway e.g. sign language.
Allan

[ken]

The guy who irritates me is the one who is always on about the 'numbers' - 'The opening numbers in the South-west will be 4or 5', 'the closing number here, 7'. We know he means temperatures, but they are not the only numbers involved - there are also wind speeds, etc.
Also, I've heard a local forecaster say that 'the temperature has halved since last week', because it's gone down from +10 to +5. No way is it correct to say that the temperature has halved.

[Chantal]

I get annoyed when I'm told that "lumps" of cloud are in the offing; not to mention the odd "grain" of snow; whatever happened to good old flakes?

[Allan]

That's Dan Corbett with the numbers. At least he amuses me with his over-getsiculations, better him than the apparently endless supply of young women, a high proportion with broad scottish accents, almost all with tailored jackets trying to look smart. If you ewear such a garment with no shirt it is inevitable that the collar is going to get greasy and horrible after a relatively short time, so people with real lives who follow this trend are either having to have them dry cleaned or wear them in an unfit state. Is fashion our servant or our boss?

[mazmezroz]

Couple of years back I went to Ukraine to see music eductation out there. It was February and -20 degrees C. There was around 15 cm of snow. All children went outside to play, and were, in contrast to kids in our schools, appropriately dressed with coats, hats, scarves etc.

In the school I teach at, so many kids come in cars, some of them actually forget to bring their coats! Or wear inappropriate clothing/shoes.

Hardly any of them know how to or bother to do up their outdoor clothing. Then the parents wonder why their precious offspring are getting cold after cold!!!!!!

We weren't allowed to let our poor little precious charges out to play yesterday because it was 'too cold'! Nanny state or wot?

[Guest]

Talking of Scottish accents, what irritates me is the English insertion of "r" when a word ending in a vowel is followed by one begnning with a vowel. The country is full, apparently, of Pamelars. Another thing is the growing tendency to stress the first syllable of polysyllabic words. This, I believe is a characteristic of southern dialects, which is evident when Scottish placenames are regularly mispronounced, even by the Beeb. But now it's become standard to pronounce "research" "REsearch". There are umpteen other examples. Even our local station Scottish newsreaders are at it!
Phew! Feel better after that!

[Allan]

That's a favourite with the Americans.Loads of other abuses but they still call it English.
Allan

[lizzie]

How about this for sheer, gross stupidity.

Earlier on this week 4 adults and 3 young children aged 6, 5 and 2 had to be rescued of Snowdon because they got stuck. They decided to walk up and get the train down. The fact that the train doesn't run in winter, and the fact that one hadn't passed them on the way up didn't seem to register. The temperature was close to -20. The littlest one was in a child carrier and, when found, was unconcious.

None of the adults had appropriate clothing on, let alone the children. They phoned the emergency services who found them using the mobile phone signal. They then moved 2 miles away from that call because they thought it was "best", despite being told to stay where they were.

They hadn't checked the weather, possesed a compass etc. They were lucky nobody died.

Personally, I would charge them for being rescued, the use of the helicopter etc.

What is wrong with people? No bloody common sense. The pilot who rescued them was a very experienced walker who wouldn't do Snowdon in the winter because of the risks. The reason these idiots gave for being on the mountain was "they fancied a walk"

Hmph, the mind boggles.

Anyway, rant over. I also agree with Allan, that weather map makes me dizzy too.

[LakeView]

Alan, I think you'll find that a lot of 'American' abuse of the language is that we are still using old English for many of our words -- read a bit of Bill Bryson and you'll discover that it's the Brits who have changed the language, not the Americans!

Now I'm out of the closet -- not cupboard! (but some of you knew that already)

...an American in Britain.

[Anonymous]

If the press is to be believed, c. 99% of the viewing public hate the new BBC weather map system. Does that matter to the BBC? Not one jot, tattle or iota. The arogance of the BBC is breathtaking. THE BBC KNOWS BEST!! You pay your licence fee and you get what the arrogant so-and-so's feel like sending you.

Terry Wogan hosts a programme called Points of View. Even he has the good sense to call it Pointless Views. You complain to the BBC, and all you get is a load of crap, ie "yes dear we hear what you are saying, but WE know best what you want to see and hear". The sooner the BBC monopoly is dismantled, and the licence tax is abolished the better!

Ooh I feel better for that!

valmarg

[jane E]

The last time I went up Snowdon was one summer's day when I was 7 months pregnant and with 4 children under 7. We did have enough survival bags for all the children plus rations and all the jumpers and coats and the sun was splitting the stones.We intended going up on the train but it was too expensive, so we went up the miner's track. The bit after the lakes is a bit of a scramble and one of the girls was asleep on a shoulder, so my husband took the eldest 2 up from there and left me by the lake with the youngest 2. Should we have done it? I don't know but it remains in the boys' minds as a major event in their childhood. There were a lot of walkers taking the same path that day. It comes down to judgement of risk. I would never have gone up in the winter or without listening to the weather forecast or without taking adequate warm clothing etc. We did a lot of walking and fishing with our children even when they were small, but we always carried survival bags, chocolate and drinks, and a basic first aid kit.

[Anonymous]

Lakeview and Allan,

Before you pair get too nasty with English/English as opposed to American English I would suggest that you both read the Melvyn Bragg book "The Adventure of English", subtitled: 500AD to 2000 - The biography of a language.

If nothing else, it is a fantastic read about the survival of a language, ie English.

valmarg