Weather in the general media (Newspaper features etc)

[Candice]

I think if you follow Mr Rao's Tweets, you'll get an idea of where he stands on this Winter..... https://twitter.com/ExpressNathan I don't do Twitter so can't respond to him (but look at those that have!), maybe I'll compose a nicely worded Q and A e-mail later. I see you responded on Twitter!

Hee hee, but he never replies back

[Summer Sun]

If anyone want's to complain to the PCC about the express you can do so here - http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/makingacomplaint.html - Its quite clear they are in breach of some rules today's story amongst others is both inaccurate & misleading

[Coast]

Its quite clear they are in breach of some rules today's story amongst others is both inaccurate & misleading

 

I suspect you really should wait until the end of May 2014 to be 100% sure of that, no matter what the models, seaweed, pine cones etc are currently saying . Like any LRF (or even a wildly dramatic paper-selling guess) it's going to be a hindsight thing, no matter how OTT or ramped up it appears today.

[sblog]

But surely a complaint could be made based on their headlines from last year......considering they just recycle their scaremongering stories on an annual basis....

[Summer Sun]

I suspect you really should wait until the end of May 2014 to be 100% sure of that, no matter what the models, seaweed, pine cones etc are currently saying . Like any LRF (or even a wildly dramatic paper-selling guess) it's going to be a hindsight thing, no matter how OTT or ramped up it appears today.

 

They can't make there mind up on how long it will last we've have 3 months, 1 month and now 6 months in the past week, so 2, 4 and 5 months remains open

 

I remember one year they said it would last till June (it even made the front page 5th along 2nd row)

 

 

But as ever Winter will arrive on December 1st and end on February 28th (29th in a leap year)

[Methuselah]

Well, it shows just how utterly toothless current press-regulation is...

[Summer Sun]

Nothing from the express for a few days now they must have ran out of stories now for winter

Edited November 24, 2013 by Summer Sun

[Summer Sun]

BBC Weather for the week ahead

 

Mostly dry - high pressure sitting across the UK

 

Often cloudy

 

Milder midweek

 

End of the week

 

Some rain

 

breezy

 

Edited November 24, 2013 by Summer Sun

[Coast]

Guernsey authorities try to improve bad weather response

 

Guernsey authorities are hoping a new plan will improve its response to and communication with the public in severe weather.

 

Heavy snow hit the island in March causing the closure of schools, roads and the airport for several days. The communication from the States - and the opening and then closing of the schools - was criticised by some. Catherine Veron, emergency planning officer, said those involved had agreed how to work better together. She said: "Emergency planning is a continuous process and requires both responders and community engagement if it is to be successful."

 

'Regular updates'

 

Mrs Veron said the local media played a "vital role" in keeping the community up-to-date in what could be "a rapidly-changing situation". As part of this approach Guernsey Police will provide regular updates on road conditions. Closure of the States schools will, as previously, be announced through local media by 07:15 on a weekday morning or made later in the day if severe weather conditions arise during the school day. Mrs Veron said that whatever advice was given out by the authorities it was "the responsibility of the individual" to decide if a journey was essential and if they have a suitable vehicle and the necessary driving experience.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-25067382

[Summer Sun]

Mushrooms can change the weather, scientists reveal

 

Mushrooms have an extraordinary ability to control the weather, scientists have learned. By altering the moisture of the air around them, they whip up winds that blow away their spores and help them disperse. Plants use a variety of methods to spread seeds, including gravity, forceful ejection, wind, water and animals. Mushrooms have long been thought of as passive seed spreaders, releasing their spores and then relying on air currents to carry them. But new research has shown that mushrooms are able to disperse their spores over a wide area even when there is not a breath of wind - by creating their own weather. Scientists in the US used high-speed filming techniques and mathematical modelling to show how oyster and super duperake mushrooms release water vapour that cools the air around them, creating convection currents. This in turn generates miniature winds that lift their spores into the air.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/10473002/Mushrooms-can-change-the-weather-scientists-reveal.html

 

Mushrooms create their own WEATHER: Fungi alter nearby air humidity to create 'winds' that spread their spores far and wide

 

Mushrooms have an extraordinary ability to control the weather, scientists have learned. By altering the moisture of the air around them, they are able to whip up winds that blow away their spores and help them disperse. Plants use a variety of methods to spread seeds, including gravity, forceful ejection, wind, water and animals. Mushrooms have long been thought of as passive seed spreaders, releasing their spores and then relying on air currents to carry them. But new research has shown that mushrooms are able to disperse their spores over a wide area even when there is not a breath of wind - by creating their own 'weather'.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2513292/Mushrooms-create-WEATHER-Fungi-alter-nearby-air-humidity-create-winds-spread-spores-far-wide.html?ico=sciencetech^mostread

[Coast]

UK weather: 31,000 people DIED of the cold last winter

 

The figures follow a bitterly cold start to the year with March being the coldest since 1962

 

The majority of these deaths were among pensioners - with over-75s accounting for 25,600 winter-related deaths in 2012/13, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The figures follow a bitterly cold start to the year. This March was the coldest since 1962, with an average monthly temperature of just 2.6C (36.7F). "Winter 2012/13 was characterised by a milder than average December, followed by a prolonged period of lower than average temperatures," the ONS report states. "The number of deaths peaked in the first week of January, which coincided with a peak in rates of influenza-like illness over the Christmas weeks. The mean number of daily deaths was higher than average for a prolonged period between February and April 2013."

 

The ONS said excess winter mortality for 2012/13 was highest in the North West of England and lowest in London - which bucks the trend of the previous year when the highest excess winter death rates were observed in the capital. There were 18,000 winter-related female deaths, a rise from 13,610 the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of excess male deaths was 13,100 - a rise from 10,590 observed in 2011/12. "In common with other countries, in England and Wales more people die in the winter than in the summer," the report adds. "In 2012/13 19.6% more people died in the winter months compared with the non-winter months, up from 15.5% in 2011/12."

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-weather-31000-people-died-2852677#ixzz2llarq77U

[Summer Sun]

James Madden has hit out at the "unwarranted behaviour and comments towards Exacta Weather/myself elsewhere" he points the "trolls / haters" in the direction of his "accuracy page"

 

Thank you to those who have pointed out some of the unwarranted behaviour and comments towards Exacta Weather/myself elsewhere.Unfortunately, this is part and parcel of holding an accurate weather record that others can't or are never likely to match, and you will most probably find that these are competitors/weather companies (otherwise it doesn't makes sense).I receive similar to my inbox on a daily basis...However, I always point the "trolls/haters" in the direction of the following accuracy page below, and ask them if they can show me anything similar in terms of LONG-RANGE weather forecasting for accuracy (for which I never receive a response back)The following page below also still has the correct long-range summer heatwave for exact dates (when other said wet and cold) and the autumn storm dates/cold November to be added (when others said mild).

 

 

I wonder what his response will be come the end of winter if we end up with a mild / average one

 

So basically those who don't agree with his forecasts are "trolls / heaters"

 

https://www.facebook.com/ExactaWeather

Edited November 26, 2013 by Summer Sun

[Methuselah]

James Madden has hit out at the "unwarranted behaviour and comments towards Exacta Weather/myself elsewhere" he points the "trolls / haters" in the direction of his "accuracy page"

 

 

I wonder what his response will be come the end of winter if we end up with a mild / average one

 

So basically those who don't agree with his forecasts are "trolls / heaters"

 

https://www.facebook.com/ExactaWeather

Wasn't his November forecast bad enough!

[Coast]

and now for something completely different:

 

Winter blues! Bad weather causes price of festive cheeses to rocket in run up to Christmas

 

CHEESE lovers could be feeling blue this Christmas as prices of festive favourites rocket because of bad weather.

 

The cost of some cheeses has risen by more than 10 per cent in recent weeks, according to industry experts. The average price of blue cheese has risen by 11 per cent in the past year, but some Stilton cheese is up in price by 13 per cent compared to this time last year. Last year's bad weather caused the price dairy farmers paid for silage to feed their herds to increase, with the cost of other essentials such as fertiliser and fuel also on the up.

 

 

 

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/445074/Cheese-lovers-left-blue-as-bad-weather-causes-prices-to-soar-in-run-up-to-Christmas

[Summer Sun]

5 days now since the Express had a weather story they've gone quiet all of a sudden

Edited November 27, 2013 by Summer Sun

[Summer Sun]

UK weather forecast: Start of December 2013 round-up

 

IT all seems to have gone a bit quiet on the weather front after last week’s chilly spell. In fact it has felt comparatively mild in parts of the UK over the past few days with temperatures even nudging double figures in parts. So what is the outlook for the end of the month and the start of December? - which incidentally is the official start of winter. It is likely to turn cooler again, according to forecasters with another band of air heading in from the North. It is not expected to be as fiercely cold as parts of the UK last week as it is not Polar in origin but is coming from an Atlantic direction. The Met Office said it is going to stay cloudy with some patchy drizzle until Friday when things will turn a bit more wet and windy. Strong gusts are expected in the North which could touch gale-force, while more unsettled conditions will spread  southwards through next week. Forecasters have also said it is going to turn colder from the North, with  wintry weather again likely to spread southwards through next week.The Met Office said the worst of the unsettled conditions will affect northern and western parts, including Scotland, Wales and northern England. One of their forecasters also warned: “There are indications that temperatures are likely to remain below average for the time of year.†Netweather said things are set to turn colder from Thursday evening over northern Britain as “another cold front approaches from the westâ€.Forecaster Jo Farrow said: “Through the small hours the winds strengthen from the West with gales for northern Scotland. “Heavy rain will whisk across Scotland during the night with strong winds. Dawn on Friday will be damp for northern England briefly as the front moves down over southern England bringing more cloud. “Friday is then windy with a brisk cold northwest wind and showers feeding into western parts, bright spells too. “By Friday evening north-east Scotland and the Northern Isles will have some miserable weather, heavy rain and north-westerly gales.“Lively showers with hail and thunder possible will skirt along the North Sea coasts, driven by a strong northerly wind to start Saturday.†So the message seems to be get the hats and gloves out again as we head into December as things start to turn colder. After that, and there are of course suggestions of an unusually severe winter on the way with long-range forecasters saying January and February could dish up something pretty nasty.We will have to wait and see.

 

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/nathan-rao/445468/UK-weather-forecast-Start-of-December-2013-round-up

[Coast]

UK weather forecast: Start of December 2013 round-up

 

IT all seems to have gone a bit quiet on the weather front after last week’s chilly spell. In fact it has felt comparatively mild in parts of the UK over the past few days with temperatures even nudging double figures in parts. 

 

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/nathan-rao/445468/UK-weather-forecast-Start-of-December-2013-round-up

 

Jeez Nathan!!!!!! Even you are starting to disbelieve your own OTT ramping headlines!!! Does this mean a less biased writing style now concentrating more on the facts than the sensationalism?

 

[Formula_1_Fan]

I wonder if the express have suddenly given Madden the elbow hence his outburst the other day. I am hoping they have realised that after a while if the headlines are lies then people will wake up and start buying something else. Surly it discredits all other stories in there as well, if the headline is wrong then it doesn't reflect well on the less important stories that didn't make front page news.

[Coast]

Weather enthusiasts not the only ones really interested in the conditions:

 

Weather has given us farmers much to think about

 

The harvest of 2013. Is it me getting older and slower or are our harvest windows getting smaller? While writing this article the heatwave we experienced in mid-summer seems but a distant memory, writes Rob Alderson.

 

However, during the midst of it, you wondered how long it was going to stay dry for; and it doesn’t take long before the “doom and gloom merchants†start fearing the worst that a dry spell can do to the growth and potential yields of their crops; be it grass or cereal to name just two types of crops that are harvested throughout the year.

 

The very wet conditions that we were subjected to right the way through the harvest and replanting months of 2012, followed by the very cold start to 2013 made me very aware that the autumn planted crops on this farm were going to reflect a difficult growing period and that was all too plain to see by the amount of bare patches I had to pass over with the combine. In the worst affected areas I had re-drilled with spring crops, which made spraying and harvesting these fields a lot more time consuming and challenging.

 

I must congratulate the man responsible on the high density baler for managing to keep the two different crops separate as he must have made as many turns as I did myself on the combine.

 

With that said, this spring when it came, was ideal for establishing crops and having spoken with other farmers, these conditions made up for the very poor conditions of last year. The only concern was could farmers find enough seed to plant the large acreage that either needed to be re-drilled or hadn’t been planted at all?

 

A downside to all this spring acreage is that we’ve inadvertently caused an imbalance in what types of grain we were able to grow; a large acreage of barley was planted, oats seem to have done well whether planted autumn or spring, and this is now reflected by a very low market price due to over-production. The price of wheat has risen marginally, trading between £30-£50 a tonne below last year’s value.

 

Realising we are on a world market with world prices easing back, I was told by a grain trader that when they were looking for wheat with values of £180-£190 per tonne this autumn farmers were reluctant to market what they hadn’t got, especially after last year’s fiasco of over-selling and subsequently not having the tonnage to honour contracts. With this in mind this spring, mills have bought cereals to guarantee their supply and hence some of our cereals are waiting to find a home at this lower value.

 

Part of this year’s challenge was getting the crops ripe enough to harvest to enable us to get the ground re-drilled in time before the weather changed and as this autumn appears to have turned damp the old adage don’t leave until tomorrow what you can do today would have been advice well taken.

 

As realists, the legacy of last autumn’s arduous planting conditions and the adverse weather that ensued, meant that this year’s yields were going to be down; by how much – we’ll only know when the last lorries have rolled over the weighbridge.

 

 

http://www.shropshirestar.com/farming/2013/11/28/weather-has-given-us-farmers-much-to-think-about/

[Summer Sun]

This reply was quickly deleted by James Madden on Facebook but not before a screenshot was taken by someone, if you don't agree with his forecasts then your reply will be deleted

 

[Coast]

This reply was quickly deleted by James Madden on Facebook but not before a screenshot was taken by someone, if you don't agree with his forecasts then your reply will be deleted

 

 

That's a shame as any forecast of note should stand up to judgement by peers and the general public alike. I still think that the analysis should come nearer the end of the forecast period, but this does sound like a flame war rather than some of the generally good constructive debate we have on NW.

 

I'm still not sure how much of the recent striking and theatrical newspaper headlines were down to journalistic interpretation or how much was down to the actual forecasters, but it certainly stirred a lot of people.

[Coast]

Northern Ireland councils on winter weather alert

 

Environment Minister Mark H Durkan has called on councils to be prepared for severe weather emergencies. Faced with the potential of another winter of freezing weather, the minister has written to all councils urging them to ensure that preparations are in train should emergencies arise. 

 

"District councils have a leading role in responding to civil emergencies. We have had an increasing number of severe winters therefore I am calling on all councils to ensure that preparations are well under way this winter," he said. "The effectiveness of council emergency management was tested during the spring blizzard in March of this year. It is important that we learn from previous experiences and continue to make plans that improve our performance. I have been impressed with the spirit of co-operation and collaboration across all emergency agencies. "Partnerships are vital to providing quick and practical assistance in emergency situations and maintaining essential links with local communities. "It is crucial to plan now and be ready for the unexpected to ensure essential local services are sustained and meet the needs of our citizens, including the most vulnerable. Keeping our services open, even during severe weather, is vital to that."

 

 

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-councils-on-winter-weather-alert-29794167.html

[Coast]

Now it's the Metro's turn:

 

Time to grab your winter coat: Big freeze to return ahead of bleak winter

 

It could be time to invest in a thicker pair of gloves, with three months of exceptionally cold weather on the way. The Met Office has warned the big freeze will begin next week, with temperatures set to plummet to below the winter average.

 

Forecasters have predicted this could be one of the coldest winters in modern times, with above-average snowfall and bitter Arctic gales predicted. They believe the below-average conditions could last for the next three months following a relatively mild spell in southern England. ‘For December-January-February as a whole uncertainty is quite large but below-average temperatures are more likely than above-average.’

 

Bookmakers are giving 5/1 odds of a white Christmas, although forecasters have said it is too early to say for sure.

 

 

http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/29/uk-weather-big-freeze-to-return-ahead-of-below-average-winter-say-met-office-4206914/

 

So what does the sentence I highlighted actually mean????

[Summer Sun]

Oh dear the express are back

 

The BIG freeze: Get ready as sharp icy blast returns to last three months

 

THREE months of exceptionally cold weather are on the way, the Met Office warned last night. Temperatures are set to plummet and are likely to remain below the winter ­average right through until March. The big freeze will begin next week with snow in the North and an icy blast bringing an end to the brief mild spell in the South. That will be just the start of what one expert described last night as “a long, hard winterâ€. James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather, said: “A significant change to much colder ­conditions is likely to develop next week. This ­wintry blast has all the ingredients to become a potentially widespread snow event. “This will give an appropriate feel to the weather at the start of what is set to be a long, hard winter with abundant snowfall. “January in particular could see temperatures hovering at several degrees below the seasonal average for a prolonged period of time.â€

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/445766/The-BIG-freeze-Get-ready-as-sharp-icy-blast-returns-to-last-three-months

 

[Nick B]

As JM has pointed out on his Facebook page above, "Haters make us famous".  At the risk of being ironic in writing this in the first place, surely he is thriving on the bad publicity as well as the good? Why not restrict comment on his articles to the level of constructive criticism they deserve? Perhaps something along the lines of "Yet more endless streams of cr*p from JM"... or no comment at all.

Credit where it's due, he has chosen his outlet well, a paper that is dumb enough to pay good money to an outside party for baseless and sensationalistic headline-grabbing fiction.  It has to be said it seems both parties collude together in the knowledge that since it's a prediction of the weather, they can both claim there is a possibility that the event could come about, while knowing full well that the real chance of three months of such non-stop severe winter weather is vanishingly slim, even in the most snow and ice prone locations.

Obviously this particular paper is comfortably relying on a gullible and non-critical readership, perhaps who have been buying the paper for so long they wouldn't feel comfortable changing anyway.  So they can claim they're quoting from a professional independent source, they're paying someone who will happily give them the headlines they require, with scant regard paid to scientific basis to underpin the so-called forecasts.