BBC Weather

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since 2005, a glass globe has been the logo for BBC Weather , shown at the beginning and end of all weather forecasts.

BBC Weather is the BBC's department in charge of preparing and broadcasting weather forecasts and part of BBC News. The Broadcast Meteorologists are employed by the Met Office.

1 History
2 Online forecasts
3 See also
4 External links

An early BBC weather forecast ident

The first BBC weather forecast was a shipping forecast broadcast on the radio on behalf of the Met Office on 14 November, 1922, and the first daily weather forecast was broadcast 26 March, 1923.

In 1936, the BBC experimented with the worlds first televised weather maps, which was brought into practice in 1949 after World War II. The map filled the entire screen, with an off-screen narrator commenting on the next day's weather.

On 11 January, 1954, the first in-vision weather forecast was broadcast, presented by George Cowling. In an in-vision where the narrator stood in front of the map. At that point, the maps were drawn by hand in the London Weather Centre, before being couriered across London. The forecasts were presented by the same person who had composed them, and had relatively low accuracy.

The installation of a fax machine in 1962 and an electronic computer in 1962 in the Met Office led to more accurate and quicker forecasting.

Satellite photography was available from 1964, but was of a poor quality and was given on paper, with the coastline etched in felt-tip pen, which was not fixed until 1973 with the installation of a new computer, increasing processing power of the Weather Centre greatly, leading to forecasts twice as accurate as earlier ones.

Bill Giles presents a weather forecast in 1996.

As computational capability improved, so did graphics technology. Early hand-drawn maps gave way to magnetic symbols, which in turn gave way to bluescreen computer-generated imagery technology, each of which allowed the presenter greater control over the information displayed.

Early magnetic symbols tended to adhere poorly to the maps, and occasional spelling errors (such as the presenter writing 'GOF' instead of 'FOG') marred some broadcasts, but allowed the presenter to show how weather would change over time. The symbols were designed to be 'self-explicit', allowing the viewer to understand the map without a key or legend.

These were phased out in 1985, for computer graphics, although the basic design of symbols was kept the same. These forecasts were widely-acclaimed for their simplicity, winning an award from the Royal Television Society.

Possibly the most famous of the forecasters is the now retired Michael Fish. Famous for his informal manner and eccentric dress sense (he once wore a blue and green blazer emblazoned with all the weather symbols), he was a viewer favourite despite an unfortunate comment before The Great Storm of 1987.

During the weather forecast before the storm, Michael Fish started his forecast with the now infamous line "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't". Although he was actually referring to a Florida hurricane, the statement has gone down in popular culture as one of the worst mistakes made so publicly.

On 2nd October 2000, BBC Weather underwent a more significant change, whilst there was not much change as far as the weather symbols were concerned, but there was more information regarding Pollen and Sun levels. Also there was a detailed map of Britain, put together using a montage of satellite pictures.

A new style BBC Weather forecast shown in the UK, presented by Darren Bett.

16 May 2005 saw the end of the weather symbols on television after 29 years and 9 months on air. They were replaced by a controversial format as the forecast underwent another redesign, with the flat map replaced by a 3D globe, and weather conditions shown by coloured areas. Cloud cover is indicated by the brightness of the map, while rain and snow are indicated by animated blue and white areas respectively. This design started off being tilted so the northern parts of the UK were reduced in size. This did not go down well with Scottish people and viewers in Northern England so the map was tilted up after about two weeks.

The move polarised opinion; some saw it as more accurate and modern, while others disliked the brown colour chosen for the landmass and the presumed high cost of the graphics. Poor angling of the map, in order to show the curvature of the Earth, led to Scotland appearing little larger than Devon, and the Shetlands being almost invisible while exaggerating London and the South East. This led to many Scottish commentators claiming the BBC was guilty of a London bias. As a result, the map was realigned, and the moving tour of the UK was lengthened.

The new look won a prestigious Silver Award at the Promax/BDA Awards in 2006. Criticism has been ongoing however, with some viewers complaining about the colour scheme, and of a lack of detail beyond 36 hours.

There have been continuous developments since May 2005. In 2006, a rippling effect was introduced to define seas and oceans.

The BBC Weather website provides outlook weather forecasts for UK and international locations using animated symbols and a format similar in design to that used for the televised broadcasts.

The website also runs frequent special features about seasonal sports, white Christmas, nature and meteorological science. It also has world weather, UK outlook and weather news.