The Changing Face Of Tv Forecasts - Your Opinion

[reef]

Perhaps the biggest annoyance I have nowadays with the BBC forecasts is the pitiful amount of airtime they are given. I particularly dislike the half-hour foreasts on the News 24 channel which generally show the weather for the next 12 hours and then a summary of what it will do in London, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh for the day after with a single graphic. Theres also the issue of the forecaster being present in the studio nowadays on the news and rushed - that is if they can get to the end of the forecast without being interrupted because some news story has just broken. All very irritating.

Not so long ago the weather presenter was given a 3-5 minute slot after the news where the weather was explained in detail. I know the general opinion is that the masses turn off when synoptic charts are shown and explanations are given but Ive generally found many people I know actually appreciate this and dislike the recent dumbing down. This trend of dumbing down is very prevalent during the actual forecasts too: hearing 'this area of blue' and 'that blob of green' and seeing charts with a circle showing a high and low pressure with arrows in between showing the air direction are prime examples of this.

I too become annoyed with the opinionation aswell. When a forecaster says its going to be a chilly night in January when minima are forecast to be 4 degrees annoys me greatly, as well as any sort of interesting weather such as snow or thunder being seen as 'bad'. Again, many people I speak to find this weather enjoyable - and do not like the typical mild and cloudy weather in winter for example which the presenters assume everyone likes/requires.

Its a shame some of the more colourful presenters are being moved to the back office aswell. Hopefully we keep the trained meterologists and dont follow the ITV, whose forecasts are quite frankly appauling.

[AderynCoch]

There does seem to be a great deal of dumbing-down in forecasting (though I'm aware this may not be the fault of the presenters themselves). For instance, last night on the BBC's evening forecast the presenter (I can't remember who it was) was making a big deal out of the fact that there was an "autumnal" feel to the weather. Call me Captain Obvious, but shouldn't we expect "autumnal" weather in October? Even the layman knows that summer can't last forever.

Oh, and the BBC's current weather graphics are absolute pants: bring back the old 2-D map with those deep reds and blues! It's all about technology for technology's sake these days (don't get me started on "glorious" high definition).

[johnholmes]

I remember Barbara Edwards and Suzanne Charlton, and they gave top-notch presentations; they clearly both knew their meteorology!

Did it all turn bad when Sian Lloyd (have I got the name right?) came along???

in a word-yes, no one on the Met O team were too impressed when she won some award for being the best TV weather forecast presenter. The clue is in that phrase=presenter, as she never was a forecaster.

Barbara Edwards was, I believe, the first female weather forecaster on TV. She hated it, was always extremely nervous and disliked intensely the letters commenting on her dress sense. Suzanne was very good. I forget why she left other than being a mum.

For instance, last night on the BBC's evening forecast the presenter (I can't remember who it was) was making a big deal out of the fact that there was an "autumnal" feel to the weather. Call me Captain Obvious, but shouldn't we expect "autumnal" weather in October? Even the layman knows that summer can't last forever.

the reason for that was to highlight, or so I would imagine, the marked change in temperature levels compared to what has been the 'norm' for the past few weeks?

and reference to several comments about the time allowed. As it has always been the case, nowt to do with the Met O, all to do with the BBC and their view that trailers etc take precedence. Do also remember, I'm sure Ian F will support this, that at any time during the scheduled forecast with no prompt screen the forecaster may get a change of time from the director in the studio, perhaps something along the lines, finish in 25 secs! Imagine dealing with that in an apparent smooth manner. The output of Radio 4 and their H-5, as it used to be prime forecasts for the whole UK is a classic in time erosion.

Edited October 15, 2010 by johnholmes

[Thundery wintry showers]

Do also remember, I'm sure Ian F will support this, that at any time during the scheduled forecast with no prompt screen the forecaster may get a change of time from the director in the studio, perhaps something along the lines, finish in 25 secs! Imagine dealing with that in an apparent smooth manner. The output of Radio 4 and their H-5, as it used to be prime forecasts for the whole UK is a classic in time erosion.

If true, here's yet another line of evidence for the dodgier forecasts being more down to the BBC rather than the presenters- it must be incredibly difficult having prepared some sort of "script" for a 1 minute 40s bulletin only to find halfway through that you're only getting 1 minute 10s!

[johnholmes]

If true, here's yet another line of evidence for the dodgier forecasts being more down to the BBC rather than the presenters- it must be incredibly difficult having prepared some sort of "script" for a 1 minute 40s bulletin only to find halfway through that you're only getting 1 minute 10s!

oh trust me Ian its true

[Nights King]

oh trust me Ian its true

I do remember Ian at some point mentioning how tough they were with time slot and how it would get reduced sometimes which was why he was unable to give as much detail as he would like to. :unsure:

[swipe]

As long as I get my twice daily fix of Shefali Oza on Midlands Today I'm not too fussed.

[ZONE 51]

Ive watched the bbc forecast since a child, and watch it to this day, cant forget when i would run home a mile to watch it!, especially if they had forecast wild weather in a previous fc or if it was happening.

Today its not the same as we have internet ,mobile phone ppn radars, we know whats coming, we can keep track of the weather. When the bbc changed to the new 3D graphic pack i did'nt like it, but now im used to it and overtime their has been little up-tweaks and it looks good. I would like to see a daily bbc in-depth forecast, they are the ones that can do this, their very good, it could be on bbc2 maybe ten minutes per evening.

itv national forecast is good also.

Edited October 16, 2010 by nimbilus

[phil nw.]

As long as I get my twice daily fix of Shefali Oza on Midlands Today I'm not too fussed.

I hope you are refering only to her looks and not her Weather Presenting skills.

The worst i have seen on TV in all my years.

Edited October 16, 2010 by phil n.warks.

[Thundery wintry showers]

oh trust me Ian its true

It may explain those forecasts when they go into a lot of detail for tomorrow morning and then all of a sudden everything after that feels "rushed". I imagine this will also help to "push" presenters towards giving a minimum of detail, or being sure to only cover tomorrow's weather and perhaps the next day or two in "city forecasts" style, to try to reduce the extent to which this happens.

Rob McElwee must have been lucky on that evening forecast I saw back in late-August when he went out to 4 days ahead and showed one pressure chart per day and presented in his inimitable quirky style- exactly the kind of forecast that would be heavily hit by a shortening of time allocation.

Edit: here's a link on the Rob McElwee subject:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/16/bbc-weathermen-being-moved-off-screen

"I think the BBC has dumbed down weather forecasting," says Teather. "Half the broadcast goes on telling you what's going on at the moment – well, I can look out the bloody window for that, what I want is the forecast."

Quite a number of "lay viewers" including my parents have made this same point, and when we see the "90s style" synoptic analysis effectively replaced by a summary of today's weather, it doesn't make non-enthusiasts any less likely to switch off. If anything the "time allocation" issue makes this even more of a problem.

[lockers]

Surely the best weather presenter (and overall presentation) ever has to be Jeremy Paxman for the extremely short duration that Newsnight had weather reports, as shown in this clip from Have I Got News For You...

Seriously though, I can't stand bad English on any serious TV presentation. I do hate it when presenters say, as seems to be the vogue on weather reports at the moment, "In the morning hours..." or "As we move towards the evening hours we'll find that...". What on earth is wrong with "In the morning..." or "...in the evening..."?

Edited October 16, 2010 by lockers

[Cymro]

I personally have no time for ITV forecasts nor those internet based accu weather forecasts on youtube. The concentration seems more based on pretty pictures rather than quality. The bbc's graphics have got it spot on I personally believe however they do have a tendancy to fly through it rather than explain the forecasts these days. It would be much better if we had a weather programm on for an hour every week discussing the weeks prospects with numerous experts arguing or differing opinion a bit like these forums do. Then we would all be much better educated and prepared on the weather. Also five minute slots rather than 2. To cover a large area 2 minutes is nothing.

[Weather-history]

If I watch any TV forecasts, they are the BBC ones. I don't watch ITV ones anymore except maybe the local Granada ones.

We have IMO, the worst weather presenter on the box and that is Eno Eurotor who does BBC Northwest weather. She is bubbly but meteorologically clueless. She is DIRE.

Dianne Oxberry and Heather Stott, the other local BBC weather presenters, are not too bad but they come far behind most of the national weather presenters. The only decent local weather presenter is Fred Talbot, at least he has some knowledge.

[Terminal Moraine]

If I watch any TV forecasts, they are the BBC ones. I don't watch ITV ones anymore except maybe the local Granada ones.

We have IMO, the worst weather presenter on the box and that is Eno Eurotor who does BBC Northwest weather. She is bubbly but meteorologically clueless. She is DIRE.

Dianne Oxberry and Heather Stott, the other local BBC weather presenters, are not too bad but they come far behind most of the national weather presenters. The only decent local weather presenter is Fred Talbot, at least he has some knowledge.

Agree with this post. The East Midlands region has a presenter who could challenge Eno Eurotor, namely one Des Coleman.I'm sure away from presenting the weather forecast he's a very nice chap but meteorologically he's also completely clueless.

As someone who remembers forecasts from the late 50s and through the 60s and 70s the current forecasts are incontrovertibly 'dumbed down'. This is not so much the fault of the forecasters as that of the quite recent obsession with trying to simplify everything beyond the point of reason in case someone is 'alienated' from the forecast by its technicality.

I'd be willing to bet that the average viewer/listener to the forecasts 50 years ago had a better grasp of the basic technicalities of meteorology than the average viewer/listener today, purely because the forecasters then weren't afraid of using the terminology and weren't restricted from doing so.

In my opinion all the national BBC forecasters are at least competent and most are excellent. It's certainly important to have trained meteorologists as demonstrated by the references to regional presenters above. The regional presenters are, in the main, barely adequate with a few notable exceptions such as Paul Hudson on Look North who obviously has some meteorological training The worst offenders shouldn't even grace our screens as it would be as edifying to venture into the local pub and ask someone standing at the bar what the weather was likely to do.

In my opinion all the forecasters should be meteorologically trained and all the main forecasts should be at least 3 minutes long. If the attention span of the public can't stretch to 3 minutes they don't deserve to know what the weather will do and can look at the precis forecasts in the red tops.

[Cookie]

Most of what we get subjected to weather forecast wise is dire tbh.

Weather View is good and how weather forecasts should be length wise but show at stupid Oclock in the morning.

BBC all the way for me.

[Crepuscular Ray]

Sometimes "Weatherview" does get shown mid-evening on N24 (it's apparently recorded at about 7.30 pm using 12.00 models (!), but not if the News division decree that a more interesting story like a cat being stuck up a tree should be shown). It's sometimes available online before the later broadcast during N24 overnight.

[Strider]

On BBC local radio (Derby) for me they ALWAYS without fail make the same joke about blaming the weather person for the poor weather.

Do they not get tired of that?

[staplehurst]

Sometimes "Weatherview" does get shown mid-evening on N24 (it's apparently recorded at about 7.30 pm using 12.00 models (!), but not if the News division decree that a more interesting story like a cat being stuck up a tree should be shown). It's sometimes available online before the later broadcast during N24 overnight.

Yeah, every weekday the evening presenter on the News Channel records Weatherview using the 12z High-res (days 1 and 2) and 0z low-res (days 3-5) global model output which is then played at 21:26 and 21:56. I prefer these forecast since it shows a lot more synoptic charts and goes further ahead than your average forecast - the only problem is, because it's pre-recorded it uses old data when by the time it goes to air there is new data readily available, but isn't used.

Similarly the WeatherView on BBC One shown after midnight is once again pre-recorded, but a different recording to that of the News Channel.

[andy_leics22]

Paul, you should try and sign Rob Mcelwee up, or at least try and get in contact with him and ask him if he wants to sign up fo the forums and give his thoughts on things

*Points at Paul and starts a football chant*

Owner sign him up, owner owner sign him up :lol:

[Terminal Moraine]

On BBC local radio (Derby) for me they ALWAYS without fail make the same joke about blaming the weather person for the poor weather.

Do they not get tired of that?

Yes, it does become extremely tedious. As does the weather presenter giving their forecast only for the programme host to say, 'Oh it's going to be wet/cold/ horrible/nice then' the exact opposite of whatever forecast has just been given.

Judging by such facile comments I can only assume that the programme hosts have their brain cells numbered in single figures or they only pay attention to what is being said when it's the sound of their own voice.

[NorthNorfolkWeather]

There is no doubt that the forecasts are less technical than they used to be, sometimes only showing Isobars when there,s a "Dartboard Low" near us. Personally I miss that level of detail. I'm currently in Germany where, on one of the breakfast news channels,they always show the synoptic chart, with a quick explanation, before moving onto the 'general' views with cloud/rain symbols. It works for me, but perhaps, as was noted earlier, it may be too much detail for the general public.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I still think the main problem with the synoptic briefing at the beginning was more the fact that it often took a while to get into telling us what the weather is going to be, rather than because of the level of detail. We still see that complaint in circulation among the general public nowadays, re. lengthy coverage of what today's weather was. I don't know how lengthy the synoptic discussion on the German channels is, but if it's brief then it may not suffer from that problem anyway.

But if that's a problem then there's still no need to scrap much of the detail- an alternative is to spread it through the forecast (e.g. Monday's synoptic analysis, then Monday's weather, then Tuesday's analysis and so on- the BBC seems to be aware of this option, as the more detailed BBC forecasts have trended this way, but unfortunately the less detailed ones have simply got markedly less detailed).

Of course I'm thinking of TV broadcasts to the general public here; I don't think the problem applies to Michael Fish's forecasts on N-W for instance, which often contain a lengthy synoptic analysis at the beginning, as chances are most of its viewers will be weather enthusiasts, many of whom may well have been turned away by BBC's reduced detail, and so the "lengthy synoptic analysis at the beginning" approach makes a lot more sense here.

Edited October 19, 2010 by Thundery wintry showers

[Strider]

Yes, it does become extremely tedious. As does the weather presenter giving their forecast only for the programme host to say, 'Oh it's going to be wet/cold/ horrible/nice then' the exact opposite of whatever forecast has just been given.

Judging by such facile comments I can only assume that the programme hosts have their brain cells numbered in single figures or they only pay attention to what is being said when it's the sound of their own voice.

Another annoyance is some berk complaining to the weather presenter in January that's "it's soo cold" when it's actually 7-8c.

Or in July asking why summer hasn't properly arrived yet when it's 21c and sunny, because according to them it's another miserable summer as we should be expecting 30-35c.

[Iceni]

My irritation is the endless weather girl pregnancies… maternity leave must be costing them a fortune, or should I say us — they're all public servants, that and the way my favourite weather is always described as 'atrocious'. No it's not it's fantastic! A blinding blizzard and drifting.

[ZONE 51]

I read on wednesday that ch5 is bringing on an internet/TV called-(viewtube?) package, and all the other four channels like the idea, i wonder how this would affect the forecasts, NW could have a TV forecast on, and the BBC maybe an in-depth daily. their be a topbox to buy like freeview box.

I would like to see the bbc forecast show the latest lightning strikes, they used to in the 90s why not now?. people want to know whats coming not whats occuring or been ,this could be a reason, part of it, or not at all i dont no.

Edited October 21, 2010 by nimbilus