The unpredictable and often confusing story of the British weather is to be told more simply in future in order to make forecasts more ”relevant” to the public.
The Meteorological Office said on Wednesday that efforts to introduce greater clarity to the weather report do not represent an attempt to make the weather appear ”more positive”.
Suggestions made by Meteorological Office staff include using the words ”patchy rain” rather than ”showery outbreaks of rain”, and saying it will be ”warm for most areas” rather than ”chilly in isolated areas”.
As well as using less scientific language, forecasters are being invited, in new proposed guidelines, not to ”over-dramatise” by focusing on bad weather if it is due in the middle of the night, or start a forecast with a bleak outlook if, in fact, the majority of the country will be fine.
A Meteorological Office spokesperson said: ”This is not an attempt to dumb down the weather or to portray the weather in a more positive light.
”One of the problems is understanding what a weather forecaster is trying to tell you. This internal discussion is about making forecasts clearer and more relevant to the majority of the population,” he added. — Sapa-DPA