The Newsroom

The Weather Forecast Thread

> 'Nice' weather girls... >More wet weather set for UK (February 2005)

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GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
Isonstine posted:
Got to love Eddie Mair who ended BBC 3 News with:

"And a quick look at tomorrow's weather........brown, brown, brown, blue, brown, brown, blue, red"


That made me laugh too.

Although not as much as when he closed with, "Goodnight. Don't come back".

Heather (on Reporting Scotland) altered the map perspective tonight so it looked like the map used to. But only while the wind patterns were being shown.

Then it squashed itself back so that the oh-so-precious animating raindrops could be seen falling.

It's because of the animations that the view is so oblique. I shouldn't therefore expect it to change. They spent all that money on raindrops falling that they're not likely to undo them for something as trivial as all parts of the UK getting a good view.

In my opinion, the blue water patches would be quite sufficient to communicate the rain pattern and could be seen without altering the perspective of the map.
MA
marksi
Dunedin posted:
I totally agree with dropping isobars and spending more time giving the weather.


If you understood them isobars and fronts would tell you a hell of a lot more about the weather than any blobs of virtual rain ever could. It'd be like saying you didn't need to give out the FTSE 100 or currency information on the financial news that you are keen on.
KA
Katherine Founding member
Dunedin posted:
I totally agree with dropping isobars and spending more time giving the weather.


What ARE you on about? Isobars ARE weather! They are an integral part of it!
IS
Isonstine Founding member
One other thing I've noticed - particularly on the regional forecasts is that after a slide has animated for about 10 seconds it just *stops* and you're left with a still of the rain falling which looks like massive iceicles sticking out of the beautiful Midlands land.

Surely a system as advanced as this would be able to animate a little longer than that. It just looks messy in my opinion. Also as noggin mentioned earlier - when a new animation starts the whole thing 'freezes' for a little while before starting again. Just looks very sloppy overall I'm afraid.
PE
Pete Founding member
I love how the raindrops have different colour in them to symbolise where the rain is heavier - that is an innovation. Oh wait, they did that anyway. The only difference now is the animating raindrops which look rubbish. Why not use the puddles from the old perspective, it just looks like a snazzier verson of the old system then which would be much better.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Have to say that I really like the new graphics, much easier to know what's coming your way rather than guessing what's going to happen when you're halfway between a black cloud with rain drops and a white cloud with sunshine
KA
Katherine Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Have to say that I really like the new graphics, much easier to know what's coming your way rather than guessing what's going to happen when you're halfway between a black cloud with rain drops and a white cloud with sunshine


Tells it in a more dramatic way too, so the BBC can say "Don't say you weren't warned!"
NE
News24
Someone commented a yesterday or the day before that the land mass looked slightly greener than the boring brown colour - this was put down to the contrast settings on the TFT monitor in the national news studio. But I've been watching with interest today, and there does seem to be a suggestion of a slightly greener tint - I don't know if this is just due to cloud cover and hence shadows on the map. Maybe someone can help out with some caps.
MA
Magoo
Has anyone else noticed that the n24 presenters are a lot chummier with their weather colleagues than before. Instead of just handing over to the forecasters (and basically telling them to get on with it) - there is more interaction between them - best example being the now legendary figure of Sir Daniel of Corbett
Razz
PO
Pootle5
jay posted:
tvmercia posted:
jay posted:
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?


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!


Oh but it doesn't tell you "exactly" where the rain/snow/sleet/hail will fall at all. If you live on or close to the coast, or a "thin" bit of the UK like Cornwall it may be ok - but to pinpoint exactly where you are in the Midlands is impossible (particularly as they keep missing Birmingham off the maps) so that the constant moving blobs of light and dark browns tell me f**k all about exactly what the weather will do.

I've given it 3 days, I still think it is unclear, dumbed down and using the technology for the sake of it - and the BBC are being so typically arrogant about continuing without listening to the viewers. I'll just go elsewhere for the weather forecasts from now on.
JJ
Juicy Joe Founding member
News24 posted:
Someone commented a yesterday or the day before that the land mass looked slightly greener than the boring brown colour


Yeah...that was me! Laughing And I'm slightly colour blind too so 3 pats on the back for me!!! Laughing
LO
lobster
i watched it for the first time tonite, to me the weather seems like an awful mess - it seems very difficult to follow because the 3d fly-overs seem all over the place.

one thing i did notice, which i think has been brought up in this thread before is how jagged some of the lines are (no anti-alasing on some parts of the image)

and, suprisingly, how jerky the animation feels - it's almost like the weather is a screensaver on a standard pc with a full system virus scan or defrag going on in the background - clearly the hardware used to render the maps (which i assume is done in real time and not pre-rendered) isn't up to the job. oh, and the brown is pretty horrid too - they need to do something about that.

all in all, a step back - it certainly doesn't make the weather any easer to read.

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