Met uses comedian for training

The Met Office plans to use Mr Thomas's case as an example when training officers.

A typo, but even so it might go some way towards explaining why the Met Office can't get the weather right.

The story actually refers to Mark Thomas, the comedian, who has successfully claimed damages from the Metropolitan Police after being stopped and searched - because he appeared over-confidant.

Maybe they think we should all be quaking in our shoes whenever we see a Police Officer?

And the Met Office, the one that is meant to be able to forecast our weather? That one's in trouble too - possibly also a case of over-confidence. Airlines and allied employers and businesses are complaining because,

“The Civil Aviation Authority base their decision on what they are being told by the National Air Traffic Services [Nats]. Nats say they base their decision on what they are being told by the Met Office and the Met Office say they are only making a weather forecast.”

All well and good, perhaps, to say they're 'only making a weather forecast' - but this is the same Met Office that decided to stop making long range forecasts because it is too difficult for their lovely computer system to manage.

Their predictions of doom relating to this volcanic dust are based around a theoretical computer model, no doubt put together by somebody, or a team of somebodys, who thought they knew what they were doing - but it seems they may have been wrong.

Maybe they should look at this picture, from the Mail. The streak of light crossing the picture is an aircraft. It's there, right above the volcano. It's a survey plane, collecting data.

As the IATS (International Air Transport Association) says,

“We have seen volcanic activity in many parts of the world but rarely has it resulted in airspace closures, and never on this scale

And all this chaos, all these stranded holidaymakers and businessmen and women, all the school closures and the distinct lack of supermarket tomatoes - all this can be safely laid at the door of the Met Office and their computer modelling. The same Met Office that brought Britain to a standstill last winter because they couldn't manage to predict ice and snow has now been allowed to bring Europe to a halt.

They, and organisations like them, are why Britain is losing credibility. Our weather forecasters are dependent on computer models that don't work - and because of this the organisation will, surely, soon lose lucrative international contracts, which will mean job losses ...

....

Met Office and the MoD

Did you know that the Met Office is part of the MoD?

It says so here

In 1996 the Met Office became a Trading Fund within the Ministry of Defence. As a Trading Fund we are required to operate on a commercial basis and meet agreed performance targets as set by our Ministerial Owner.

It also says

The Under Secretary of State for Defence and the Minister for Veterans, currently Kevan Jones, is the individual charged with directing and overseeing the Met Office on behalf of the Secretary of State for Defence.

The ultimate responsibility and accountability lies with the Secretary of State for Defence, currently the Right Honourable Bob Ainsworth MP.

There has to be a list somewhere that shows fairness, and will show how much the Met Office 'earns' and how much has been cut from its' budget.

After all, the MoD is cutting military funding, including that of the youth branches of the Army (ACF and UOTC)  and the TA (whose soldiers have to go into battle).

Thanks Met Office!

According to the BBC at 18:49 GMT, Thursday, 7 January 2010

The Met Office said temperatures could fall to as low as -20C in England.

Do they really call this a weather forecast?

Mrs R can look out of her window, she can see the snow and she can see the clear starry skies and she could see the moon lying on its back, so she has a darned good idea that tonight is going to be extremely cold

She would have expected the Met Office to have been able to predict this "cold snap" more than a couple of days in advance - something pointed out by Andrew Neil when he interviewed John Hirst, the chap who gets paid a small fortune for running the Met Office. Andrew Neil wanted to know why the USA got weather warnings right, but the renowned (and very expensive) Met Office didn't provide an equivalent service for the UK.

Maybe information gleaned via Not a sheep would help, because surely the power supply people get more warning than us mere mortals.

It might be worth checking out this power supply/demand site to work out what the weather will be like. (Unfortunately Mrs R hasn't a clue what the proper name is, there doesn't seem to be a title anywhere.)

Okay, I know, it's getting a bit stale and a bit sameish, but my continued bashing away at the Met Office for being useless is really just a symptom of my/our general unhappiness of/with/about the way things are being done (or not done) in this country right now.

Weather forecasters are there to provide a service, and an accurate service too - because if they don't it means lives can be put at risk.

If there are likely to be storms, whether wind or rain, they should tell us.

If heavy snow or frost is likely, they should tell us.

They should tell us these things long enough in advance so we can make up our own minds about what we do or don't do - because some of us can use our initiative, we're not all totally dependent on government to make decisions about the minutiae of our everyday lives.

If we know what weather is on the way we can make up our minds about whether to take a long journey in a car, maybe to try to visit a very sick relative in a hospital a couple of hundred miles away - and that's the sort of quandary facing us Rigbys at the moment, and the Met Office is doing damn all to help.

Aside from that, we pay them for a service. The service they are supposed to provide is meant to help us decide whether or not it's a good idea to take a long walk in the countryside, maybe go out in a small boat, or even whether or not to plan an outdoor party.

But they don't seem to care, all they want to do is bamboozle us with an agenda designed to make us believe the planet is going to fry - but even if it does, they tell us it won't happen tomorrow, and frankly it's tomorrow that's important to most people, who want to know whether they will be able to get to the shops, whether their children will be able to go to school or college and whether or not they should get out of bed early to try to go to work.

And to make it all worse, Mrs R has just seen a government funded "information advert" telling her and her family not to waste water because the planet is running out of the wet stuff.

Honestly, you couldn't make it up, could you!

When snow melts it turns into water. If we hadn't had this load of snow we'd probably have had lots and lots of rain - like Spain and Portugal.

If the Met Office had made the right forecast at the right time then this advert might not have been shown, and might not, therefore, have been so utterly and ridiculously inappropriate.