The Weather Forecast Thread

Oh dear, all this commotion and upset over a set of weather graphics!

Seriously - can British people not appreciate the huge step forward this is in weather broadcasting? I personally can't stand the people who ring up Points of View and complain about someone's top being the wrong colour or the way Dot cotton preaches the bible... it's just pathetic.

And I don't see how people can use the 'we're paying our license fee money for this blah blah...'

Well, an interesting point that someone at the BBC made to my media class the other week: If you lived til you were 100 years old, and paid your license fee every year, the money wouldn't even go half way to fund one half hour programme. The license fee you pay only adds to money that has come from elsewhere.

Does any member of the general public understand what isobars represent? or high and Low pressure - because I certainly don't!
It's only really weather geeks and meteorologists (is that right?) that are bothered about the technical side of things - I just want to know if it's going to be a nice day or not.

so are you arguing that british tv should cater to the lowest intelligence level?

are you being a teeny tiny bit selfish and blinkered.

i am all for pretty graphics and modernisation however these graphics convey LESS information in MORE time.

a step backward, no?

I suppose I'm a member of the public, and not a meteorologist or weather geek, and I understand isobars. It's really not brain surgery.

Just because some people don't understand it, should the BBC always cater for the lowest common denominator? I find the 'you don't understand that, so we're not going to show it anymore' attitude exceptionally patronising.

I wholeheartedly agree!

Most people ARE interested in knowing where the next weather front is coming from because more often than not it will tell you how long a particular pattern of weather will affect you.

And if jay doesn't understand isobars then his secondary school Geography was obviously not up to standard.

And just for the record - an isobar is a line that joins areas of equal pressure. See it wasn't that hard was it after all?

I don't think these graphics manage to do that job very well, especially if you live in Scotland.

My understanding of isobars is next to nil, but to be honest they never used to put me off the forecast so I don't see why they couldn't have kept them for those that want them.

You know that I think the license fee should be scrapped, however because we "have" to pay, then people have the right to complain. I like the new graphics so far, but the clouds and other things are hard to understand. I knew the BBC would get a bashing for these new graphics, because the British people aint used to them, but we do have to move forward and not live in the past. Ive tried to make my commenta as fair as possible, but if they are I dont know!

To be honest, I'm not arguing anything... just wondered how useful and meaningful all those lines were on the old maps. they were never explained to me, and I guess, many other people in this country. So instead of either having them or not having them, maybe they should explain what they mean first.

I must say the lack of place names on the map does look a bit stupid - masses of brown doesn't look very nice anywhere - especially on TV screens.

I don't think these maps are a step backwards though, no.. I think they're really good actually. You argue that they show less detail in more time: that's wrong. They show exactly where rain/snow/sleet/hail will fall, where ice patches will form, where will be sunny and where will be not so sunny more or less at the same time. If you've traveeled on a plane in the daytime and you look down at the land, the cloud shadows look exactly as they do on the new weather maps.

*Oh dear* if a few annoying lines are missed off... just seems a bit silly that people are getting so worked up about it!

I've known what isobars are since I was eleven. Knowing what Isobars are would tell you immediately (if accompanied by cloud) if it was going to be a nice day or not. Isobars are lines or contours on a weather map that show equality of atmospheric pressure. With isobars there's usually a number that tells you the atmospheric pressure. This unit of measurement's called a millibar. Standard atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1013 millibars. Usually, the higher the millibars, the nicer the day is. If there are very few isobars on the map, this will mean that any wind will be very light. The tighter the isobars, the stronger this wind becomes and air pressure will drop.

It's not geeky or anoraky to know this stuff - it's very helpful indeed to know if the day is going to be nice.

Have you seen a Geography syllabus lately? It's all about farming and volcanoes these days! We don't actually learn about places!

And just for the record, it isn't just me in the whole country that doesn't understand what they mean - so don't be so patronising.

I don't think Katherine was being patronising, but I do agree with some points you made Jay. The research apparently showed that people didn't understand what isobars meant. That doesn't mean you shouldn't show them - it means you should perhaps spend a little time now and then explaining how to interpret them on the map. It really isn't all that complicated and I would be very suprised if they weren't one of the fundamentals of a basic geography education.

To remove isobars and fronts (the Atlantic pressure chart) from a forecast "because most people don't understand them" is hard to square with the "inform, educate and entertain" ethos that the BBC should be following.

I haven't seen Rob McElwee do a forecast on the new graphics yet - I think he's one of the best forecasters as he does explain a little more of the science behind what's happening and has always tended to make more use of the pressure charts.

Now - problem number 347. On the website, layers are used. The base layer is the map. If you look at the visible satellite link you'll see that the layer for clouds is not correctly lined up with the map layer. This is obvious today because the clouds today are following the coastlines quite markedly, and the French coast cloud layer is over Kent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/ukweather/visiblesatellite.shtml

GCSE Geography is made up of 14 units. Only 2 of these are fixed. Usually only 6 of the remaining 12 units are studied, as the genre of questions in the exam can be chosen. So many people will not have covered "Weather and Climate" (including me). I know how they work though.

Never mind for GCSE, I'd expect weather and climate to be a basic element which should be taught to 11 year olds.