Weather forecasts

[dang65]

It's such a win-win situation for governments and scientists.

Scenario A

It gets warmer in the future. Told you so, we did not reduce CO2 enough. More taxes.

Scenario B

It does not get warmer in the future. Thank-goodness we all paid those taxes on everything. Result!

I'm not really clear how Scenario A is a "win" situation? Scientists who are drawing attention to the currently changing climate aren't looking for points. They are trying to rally us in a last ditch attempt to prevent the huge amounts of damage we have already done from becoming terminal for much of the human race.

We've experienced dramatic climate change in the past, but it was at a time when there were less humans on the entire planet than there are now in New York. The few resources available then were shared amongst far fewer people than we have now.

Also, those people were way harder than we are. Basically, the planet was inhabited by a couple of million Ray Mearses instead of several billion Jade Goodys.

[dang65]

If you can't see the point I'm making (ie trusting people who cannot predict something one hour ahead) then it really is a sad day.

You might as well ask how a doctor who can only treat cancer successfully about 60% of the time can be trusted to give a tetanus injection.

One is complex and wildly unpredictable in nature and the other is a basic routine.

[SuperZ]

Recently a location in the UK that relies on income from travellers complained about the poor weather forecast the Met Office gave for the area. Apparently the Met Office said the weather would be poor for the weekend but it turned out to be a real scorcher and the town lost a lot of revenue because people stayed away.

When put to the Met Office they stated "we were busy observing interesting weather in France and that affected some of our UK forecasts" - enough said about the quality of the Met Office service. KNowing some people there from the past I understand that to be a poor and possibly untrue excuse and the spokesperson was not being exactly truthful.

[minestrone]

On the BBC news weather chart France makes up about that same area as England, Holland is about the same size as Wales or Scotland. As our weather is predominately from the West there is no need to show Sweden and Norway taking up nearly as much room as the UK.

[Benno]

Recently a location in the UK that relies on income from travellers complained about the poor weather forecast the Met Office gave for the area. Apparently the Met Office said the weather would be poor for the weekend but it turned out to be a real scorcher and the town lost a lot of revenue because people stayed away.

When put to the Met Office they stated "we were busy observing interesting weather in France and that affected some of our UK forecasts" - enough said about the quality of the Met Office service. KNowing some people there from the past I understand that to be a poor and possibly untrue excuse and the spokesperson was not being exactly truthful.

That was somewhere up in the Highlands, where the Met Office used the data for Aviemore, but the other place has it's own kind of microclimate which bears no relation to Aviemore despite being fairly nearby, though I can't remember the actual place.

edit -knew I'd find it, with the added bonus of a HMHB lyric
http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.co...ather-friends/