BBC Breakfast

I think Hatton Cross was referring to the weather summary at the top of the hour, not the whole sequence. It's definitely live normally.

Yes sorry that was what I was referring to. Hence most weekend top of the hours seem at be at 0701 0801 etc. I presumed the forecaster managed TV and radio by using the same studio in the weather centre.

Thanks, Drew. That's what I meant. The 'tease' at 6/7/8am in to Breakfast on a Saturday is pre-recorded - the actual forecasts are all live, on both tv and Radio 4.

The radio weather forecast at xx.57 on the Today programme is done from their studio - the weather team also have a small booth based at the back of the weather area in BH if they need it (I believe Five Live daytime weather when Simon King in Salford isn't available is done from this booth)-
You can see it through one of the windows from the street around the back, if you know where to look

However, for the Saturday 6/7/8am BBC Breakfast weather tease, there is absolutly no way that the forecaster could get down from the Today studio on one of the upper floors of Broadcasting House, having been on air on Radio Four at 6.57/7.57/8.57 and down to the weather studio/presentation point, talkback earpiece and mic'ed up in less than two minutes, without appearing on screen out of breath and sweating profusely..

..you don't want to give the Daily Mail and Telegraph any ideas about what goes on in W1A, between forecasts, do we!?

Could the Radio 4 forecasts at the weekend though be coming from the radio studio in the weather centre and they all therefore be live? Presumably the London hub team use that studio for their local radio forecasts.

Does the Radio 4 shift involve any forecasts other than those in the Today programme? Who is doing the morning forecasts on BBC World?

The Radio 4 shift has included the forecast between Breakfast and Business Live and possibly the one after that on the news channel. Where do Victoria Love forecasts sit? Are they still Breakfast and then Newsroom Live from Salford? I think the shifts were changed when Simon King started presenting some from Salford.

That’s my point with breaking news there are so many unknowns. But in this case they could interpret from the maps as they appear on air or read the temperatures out loud. It wouldn’t be that bad. It’s not severe weather.

There was one incident locally (I live in a larger US market) during good weather where a totally unexpected tornado popped up between the evening and late newscasts around 7:45 PM. The meteorologist was 20 minutes away at a dinner but the station got on air and an anchor was able to accurately cover the characteristics of the tornado while a non weather producer was manipulating the multitude of weather computers. About ten minutes into coverage they had the meteorologist on the phone talking about the storm while driving in (I assume someone else was showing him maps or doing the driving). That was severe weather where a bit more knowledge is required.

My point is if an anchor in a large US market could accurately describe and handle tornado coverage surely a presenter for a national network could handle a minute.

Like I said it’s not like the presenters were asked to look at all the different weather models, do their own math and build graphics at a moments notice. The show was already built and loaded. A national presenter should generally know weather trends of their country or the general habits. It’s not like I am expecting them to read or interpret a forecast for North America.

Sorry for bringing it up. Just something like that seems like something they should know.




Okay. I wasn’t sure what was used. When I inferred Mosart I wasn’t sure if the producer would have to go to navigate menu or such to cut to the source.

I've seen what you describe happen — weather person somehow misses slot, anchors try to talk over maps anyway. In my opinion, it almost always looks and sounds terrible. Local US TV is a different world, but most of the anchors I've worked with who don't have any weather experience would probably be terrified at having to read through anything more than a five day forecast slide with a few seconds' notice. Plus, weather actually *is* a science. Meteorologists have scientific minds, and you wouldn't believe how picky they can get at whatever non-weather people say or write about weather outside of the forecast.

Breaking in for a tornado warning is somewhat different. By that point, the anchor had at least some idea of something specific to talk about and had a little bit of time to prepare for a a live broadcast, and there was some urgency to get that information on the air. In the case of a weather person missing a routine slot during a live broadcast, then yeah, I'd probably skip over it too.

The other thing to note is that the UK is notorious for its changeable and very localised weather. On a single day we could have rain, sun, wind, snow....and go 2 miles down the road and they probably experienced something different. I'm not exaggerating to make the point either. Last week I awoke to a good covering of snow and had a nightmare morning commute. By 5pm when I left work, it was sunny, warm and without a trace of any snow on the ground. To ask a newsreader to describe UK weather conditions would be next to useless. They could say it's going to be sunny by looking at the map but in reality we might get showers. That's why British people are always prepared for any eventuality - we're rarely far from an umbrella.

Nina Warhurst doing business updates on Breakfast this morning, I think that's a first.

A couple of other unusual occurrences this morning. Simon King was presenting the weather from the studio - and the female presenter (Rachel Burden) was sitting to the on screen left, I think that's the first time that's ever happened (except for when two females present) even after that whole furore a couple of years back.