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[broadstairs]

This has been announced today and despite moans over the years I still think the UKMO knows British Weather better than practically any other organisation. What worries me is this statement from the BBC

"We are legally required to go through an open tender process and take forward the strongest bids to make sure we secure both the best possible service and value for money for the licence fee payer."

which seems to indicate they are more worried about money than accurate weather forecasting.

Stuart

[roseway]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34031785

I agree with you, Stuart. Value for money should include the quality of the product as well as its price, and the UK Met Office is up with the best in the world.

[GigabitEthernet]

I'm sure I read about an almost identical situation occuring three years ago and nothing came of that.

Why the sudden change?

[Black Sheep]

With todays technology, there seem to be hundreds of weather-prediction sites out there .......... and tbh, when I used to have a modicum of interest ....... they were all pretty much giving out the same information.

I'm on my works lappy at the minute, and the one site I wanted to point out is on my home PC, so I can't provide a link to it.  It was the one I tended to use the most.

With that in mind, I would guess that's the reason it's simply cash, that is driving the decision to change ??

[sevenlayermuddle]

Hmmm... personally I have been arguing for some time that the Met Office has forgotten its primary purpose, which I have always seen as short term weather forecasting.  Rather, it now seems to see itself foremost as an evangelist of climate change theories, with a sideline in weather forecasting.

You can argue whether that is a good thing or a bad thing but.  But even if it is a good thing, it is probably not what the licence payers have in mind when coughing up the BBC's annual costs...

[AArdvark]

I have to say this is a surprise.
In my experience the met office has been better than any of the random weather sites I have used.

Then again the accuracy of any of them is not great. (I am in the north west and sticking your head out the window usually is just as accurate )

It is simply saving money and with all the attacks on the bbc and how it is run, they have no choice.

Do you know who won ?
(Who is on the short list, I mean)



Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

[broadstairs]

No more information right now. I doubt that there are any UK companies who could compete, last time they updated the graphics they went for ones I believe were developed in New Zealand.

I know they take quite a lot of stick but it is notoriously difficult to forecast weather on an island like the UK and even local areas often have their own micro-climate like here in E Kent. People often look to areas of the USA and Europe and complain we dont hve nearly as accurate forecasts but then the forecasters in large land masses have a much easier job for the bulk of the areas.

Stuart

[broadstairs]

There is an article in the Daily Telegraph which suggests the tendering process has no eliminated the Met Office in favour of either  Dutch based MeteoGroup or New Zealand forecasting service Metra. Well I for one dont believe either can provide as accurate service as the Met Office and probably will need data from the Met Office to do the forecasts anyway. The article seems to imply that the BBC is intent on dumbing down the forecasts and the feeling the Met Office mobile phone app was not good enough. Well the UKMO app might not be the greatest interms of look etc but it does what it says on the tin - forecast weather. The Met Office wanted to add probabilities for rain but the BBC thought it too complex - how about asking the public what they want!

Stuart

[AArdvark]

Agree.
As an app the Met Office one is OK.
It does what you want without silly graphics and obtrusive ads.
The close runner is the BBC Weather app.

[kitz]

This is sad.

So it boils down to the fact that despite the fact that the Met Office is rated the best in the world, it fell down because of a mobile phone app.   Seriously???