Best Weather UK Info?

russellsnr

russellsnr

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Hi, So the Met office app or the BBC website, many times you check the weather and the Met Office shows cloudy the BBC weather shows rain, what app or web site do you use for UK weather?
Russ.
 
Met Office for me. BBC use a commercial service provided by the French Meteo (Met Office equivalent), but I've no idea where they get their modelling from. The Met Office runs its forecasting models every 6 hours and updates every 12 hours with input from the US NOAA, so I'm inclined to favour their bigger picture modelling personally. (Spoiler alert: I worked at the Met Office for a year 20 years ago and developed a huge respect for how they work)
 
It’s always difficult predicting the weather in the uk for a number of reasons mostly due to the convergence of a number of different weather systems. I usually find predictions by the Met office to be the most accurate. The BBC ditched the Met office forecast a few years ago on the grounds of cost.
 
Met office, BBC and whatever the app is on the lappy! If the weather is critical to plans, I take a pessimistic approach to deciding which to follow, otherwise I figure out some sort of average.
 
russellsnr said:
many times you check the weather and the Met Office shows cloudy the BBC weather shows rain
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I don't look at the BBC weather but the Met Office shows a probability of precipitation, so it could be the 'rain' symbol triggers at different points on the two systems
And remember, the weather predictions we see are generated by computers. Computers work to rules. No-one ever told the weather what the rules are...........
In the grand scheme of things we are on a very small island and our weather originates a long way away. A tiny change somewhere and a weather system can hit us or miss completely. Add to that localised effects due to terrain, proximity to sea/water, land use, built up areas etc etc and the complexity is enormous
With a lifetime of outdoorsy things, some weather critical, I use the Met Office, local knowledge and gut instinct. And I still get caught out sometimes
 
One of Mrs Nod's students is a forecaster at the Met office and apparently, they run 100 simulations of what MIGHT happen with the weather and the % "chance" of precipitation is the number of the simulations that showed it. As Jan says, microclimates are everywhere! We can have rain in the front garden and sunshine on the back.
 
Thank you for the replies. Met office is what I do use, just wondered if that was the main go to. Russ.
 
The above (post #11) isn't bad advice if you want/need to know what's going to happen in the very near future!
 
WhatTheForcast WTF on android.
 
I use the Ventusky app on my phone, always found it fairly reliable
 
Doesn’t rain comes from the clouds? So both correct. I’ve found looking out the window is best, especially when you live at the top of a hill and get 360° visibility.
 
I always rely on my cone. It sits on my deck by the PC and given the PC had never in this been rained on it's never been wrong. In my younger days I did a spot of winter climbing and a friend heavy into gliding who insisted on getting the Telegraph each day for the then comprehensive weather information allowing him to provide our own detailed local forecast. I have had little faith in forecasts since.
 

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I also find ventusky pretty good and also MSN weather app.

But this is very reliable


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Let's face it, most places in the UK (especially Dartmoor!), the forecast is "Liable to change at a moment's notice"...
 
ecoleman said:
Ventusky is good but it really depends on the model you choose. Different models often give different results so which do you believe?
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Some time back they seem to have changed their "model" which wasn't that good IMO.
But I see they are back to the old one now.
 
lindsay said:
Met Office for me. BBC use a commercial service provided by the French Meteo (Met Office equivalent), but I've no idea where they get their modelling from. The Met Office runs its forecasting models every 6 hours and updates every 12 hours with input from the US NOAA, so I'm inclined to favour their bigger picture modelling personally. (Spoiler alert: I worked at the Met Office for a year 20 years ago and developed a huge respect for how they work)
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The BBC weather forecasting contract is with a private company called MeteoGroup. They use much the same meteorological modelling as many national met offices and actually share data and results with each other. MeteoGroup also provide weather data to National Highways (or whatever they're called this week) and other highways authorities worldwide for modelling of when and where gritting is needed. One of their subsidiaries (DTN) provide met services for many airports around the world, I know them from their work on roads and airports. Overall, they are a very competent, professional organisation but, like you, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the guys and gals at the Met Office.
 
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