I really like them but I can see the advantages and disadvantages. IMO, I think they are good at showing where the sun, wind, snow, rain etc is but I dont think its very good that people in Scotland and the Isle of Man are pretty uninformed.
Just saw the forecast before 2pm on News 24 and it was actually worse than I thought.
Living in Edinburgh, we were in shot (somewhere up in the distance up north) for milliseconds as we zoomed over us.
Technology for the sake of it.
Also why the huge gap (both in terms of place names and temperature) between Norwich and Cardiff.
Some of these issues can undoubtedly be put down to teething problems (no wind, isobars etc), but there are fundamental weaknesses in the system that make it harder to get a snapshot of the likely weather where you live- as someone quite rightly said, it's too clever for its own good.
The greatest advantage of the old system is that you really didn't have to pay that much attention- you knew where to look and got the morning, afternoon and evening summary of your weather. Now you can blink and you'll miss your area and with the fast moving clock it's actually quite distracting to work out what time you're looking at.
Sky news use the ticking clock but the map's static so you can see your area.
You just can't do both things- you can't have a moving map with constantly changing clock.
Believe me there are people stupid enough to make that mistake, including many elderly people.
Whether you meant to or not, you've just branded all elderly people as 'stupid'.
Perhaps you should be more careful with what you write.
Yes, 'ignorant' would have been a far more accurate word!
I did not brand all elderly people stupid. I said 'many elderly people', not 'all elderly people.' Perhaps you should read more carefully before replying next time.
And I stand by my comments. Many elderly people are easily confused and make mistakes they would not have done in their youth. Is isnt young people who send cheques to people who claim they have won a prize in a foreign lottery they didnt enter.
The big blue patches on the map could very easily be misread as flooded areas, especially at a time flooding does actually occur.
I think the blue rain shows up better on the green map, but what about the temperature box in low figures, it would be green and blend in with the ground.
I fing the wind arrows very confusing compared with before!
It does seem particularly odd that they've promoted the new look as being clearer. I don't see how 'light brown shading' is a clearer representation of sunshine than a sunshine symbol.
I'm afraid I also don't buy the argument that the maps now show you exactly which areas will be sunny and which won't. They may give you that impression that they're more accurate in this respect, but is the forecasting itself more accurate to match this? Can they really predict that a band of cloud will clear away between Hull and Goole between 6 and 7pm? In making the maps more precise they've removed any allowance for a margin of error which the old symbols allowed them.
