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Met Office loses BBC contract


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Posted
  • Location: Puddletown, Dorset
  • Location: Puddletown, Dorset

I suspect there will be some interesting discussions and negotiations going on under the Transfer Of Undertakings (TUPE) directives - the new operator effectively have to take on staff who worked primarily on the BBC contract and I imagine there will be considerable pension issues to cover also. I can imagine accountants and lawyers working late nights on this contract change.

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  • 6 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Upper Tweeddale, Scottish Borders 240m ASL
  • Location: Upper Tweeddale, Scottish Borders 240m ASL

Have poked around looking for an answer, without any luck, so does anyone know when the contractor changes and who the new contractor is?

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  • 1 month later...
Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

No surprises there.

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Posted
  • Location: Newton Poppleford, Devon, UK
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, Snow, High Winds.
  • Location: Newton Poppleford, Devon, UK

Not at all surprised, if it wasn't going to be Netweather then I thought it was going to be MeteoGroup.

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Posted
  • Location: East Lothian
  • Weather Preferences: Not too hot, excitement of snow, a hoolie
  • Location: East Lothian
4 minutes ago, skifreak said:

Pertinent first question on the blog - will the new graphics represent Scotland at the SAME scale as Southern England? 

channel 4 and sky do

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Posted
  • Location: Darlington
  • Weather Preferences: Warm dry summers
  • Location: Darlington

Some weather presenters look set to lose their jobs as MeteoGroup is named as the company to replace the Met Office as the BBC's weather forecaster most will remain though

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37109605

 

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Posted
  • Location: North Somerset, UK
  • Location: North Somerset, UK
2 hours ago, skifreak said:

Pertinent first question on the blog - will the new graphics represent Scotland at the SAME scale as Southern England? 

Yes, we've done a raft of work on that. 

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Posted
  • Location: East Lothian
  • Weather Preferences: Not too hot, excitement of snow, a hoolie
  • Location: East Lothian
4 minutes ago, Summer Sun said:

Some weather presenters look set to lose their jobs as MeteoGroup is named as the company to replace the Met Office as the BBC's weather forecaster most will remain though

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37109605

 

 

many have worked for the Met Office for decades within the BBC weather centre. It prob won't be a lose job thing, more like new post uncertainty. Which has already being going on for over 2 years now. 

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Posted
  • Location: Ski Amade / Pongau Region. Somtimes Skipton UK
  • Weather Preferences: Northeasterly Blizzard and sub zero temperatures.
  • Location: Ski Amade / Pongau Region. Somtimes Skipton UK

If Sky and Chanel 4 weather forecasting presentation is to go by, not looking a good change, but all about cost I suppose, rather than good presentation . The Met Office App and on line service is poor though and needs a kick up the pants. Too late for the Flagship TV presentation. The BBC world News weather forecast is watched by millions around the world, looks like that may be lost as well. Shame, but that's the way things are going.

C

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Posted
  • Location: North Somerset, UK
  • Location: North Somerset, UK
8 minutes ago, carinthian said:

If Sky and Chanel 4 weather forecasting presentation is to go by, not looking a good change, but all about cost I suppose, rather than good presentation .

Not true. Rest assured I think all weather aficionados will be delighted when they see the final product and the massive improvements when visualising the weather 'story'. Bear in mind the scope of what we will be showing / mapping: ranging from global, right down to hyperlocal scale; with model products including ECMWF's full suite and UKMO-UKV to 'fuel' all you will see. Keep faith.

Edited by fergieweather
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Posted
  • Location: Ski Amade / Pongau Region. Somtimes Skipton UK
  • Weather Preferences: Northeasterly Blizzard and sub zero temperatures.
  • Location: Ski Amade / Pongau Region. Somtimes Skipton UK

I hope so. My only comparison is with the service provided by Sky and Channel 4, which is not on the same level as BBC.

c

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
53 minutes ago, fergieweather said:

Not true. Rest assured I think all weather aficionados will be delighted when they see the final product and the massive improvements when visualising the weather 'story'. Bear in mind the scope of what we will be showing / mapping: ranging from global, right down to hyperlocal scale; with model products including ECMWF's full suite and UKMO-UKV to 'fuel' all you will see. Keep faith.

Well flashy graphics are no good if the data behind it all is no good we will wait and see.

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Posted
  • Location: Ouse Valley, N. Bedfordshire. 48m asl.
  • Location: Ouse Valley, N. Bedfordshire. 48m asl.

Ironically for the Scottish moaners that projection is still a distortion, just the other way around. The current isn't perfect but allows for the movement of weather to be shown in a truer context. Given that Scotland has the population of Yorkshire and is sparsely populated, I don't understand the big deal. Seems petty nationalism. 

Edited by March
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Posted
  • Location: Carryduff, County Down 420ft ASL
  • Location: Carryduff, County Down 420ft ASL
5 hours ago, March said:

Ironically for the Scottish moaners that projection is still a distortion, just the other way around. The current isn't perfect but allows for the movement of weather to be shown in a truer context. Given that Scotland has the population of Yorkshire and is sparsely populated, I don't understand the big deal. Seems petty nationalism. 

Really,  so population size dictates the service you receive? 

Its not hard to have an accurate scaled map. 

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Posted
  • Location: Edinburgh (previously Chelmsford and Birmingham)
  • Weather Preferences: Unseasonably cold weather (at all times of year), wind, and thunderstorms.
  • Location: Edinburgh (previously Chelmsford and Birmingham)
7 hours ago, skifreak said:

A wee graphic showing a 'same scale' map of the UK overlaid over the current BBC weather map. 

BBCweathermap.jpg

Because Scotland is further north the flat map you have overlaid makes Scotland appear much wider than it actually is. The map the BBC use is supposed to make it look as if the British Isles sit on a curved spherical surface, which is exactly true of course. I think what's wrong is the angle; the BBC's map is being looked at from more directly above the south than the north, and so Scotland appears further away and therefore "shorter". I think the reason for being more centred over the south is probably due to the larger population that exists there, but I am surmising here.

Edited by Relativistic
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Posted
  • Location: Highland Scotland
  • Location: Highland Scotland
4 hours ago, Relativistic said:

Because Scotland is further north the flat map you have overlaid makes Scotland appear much wider than it actually is. The map the BBC use is supposed to make it look as if the British Isles sit on a curved spherical surface, which is exactly true of course. 

That doesn't make a KM shorter in Northern Scotland and longer in the South of England as the BBC map does. An approximate area calculation on the map I posted suggests it's fairly close to a 'same scale' map - each part of the land mass looking as it would appear if you were directly above it.

The BBC weather map on the other hand has England having a surface area slightly over 3x that of Scotland, where as England actually has 1.62x the land mass of Scotland. In terms of spatial resolution of the projected weather data, that means there's effectively space for only half as much information over Scotland as there should be.

This alongside the switch from round to square temperature symbols mean fewer temperature points are provided for Scotland and only exposed coastal locations. One of the standard locations for a temperature symbol on the UK wide map is Rosehearty which juts out into the sea in the NE corner near Fraserburgh. We no longer have a non coastal temperature that gives anything approaching a reasonable representation of temperature for the Northern Highlands, the Central Highlands or inner Moray Firth, or indeed for most of inland Scotland. That gives a completely distorted representation of the weather to go along with the distorted map, it fails to indicate cold weather adequately in winter and in decent summer weather the maximum temperature shown on a BBC weather map in the North of Scotland can be as much as 12ºc below the actual highest recorded in the Central Highlands. That factor is a genuine business grievance in the tourism sector in this part of the world.

 

BBC-2016-temperature.jpg

BBC-1995-temperature-map.jpg

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Posted
  • Location: Edinburgh (previously Chelmsford and Birmingham)
  • Weather Preferences: Unseasonably cold weather (at all times of year), wind, and thunderstorms.
  • Location: Edinburgh (previously Chelmsford and Birmingham)
10 minutes ago, skifreak said:

That doesn't make a KM shorter in Northern Scotland and longer in the South of England as the BBC map does. An approximate area calculation on the map I posted suggests it's fairly close to a 'same scale' map - each part of the land mass looking as it would appear if you were directly above it.

The BBC weather map on the other hand has England having a surface area slightly over 3x that of Scotland, where as England actually has 1.62x the land mass of Scotland. In terms of spatial resolution of the projected weather data, that means there's effectively space for only half as much information over Scotland as there should be.

This alongside the switch from round to square temperature symbols mean fewer temperature points are provided for Scotland and only exposed coastal locations. One of the standard locations for a temperature symbol on the UK wide map is Rosehearty which juts out into the sea in the NE corner near Fraserburgh. We no longer have a non coastal temperature that gives anything approaching a reasonable representation of temperature for the Northern Highlands, the Central Highlands or inner Moray Firth, or indeed for most of inland Scotland. That gives a completely distorted representation of the weather to go along with the distorted map, it fails to indicate cold weather adequately in winter and in decent summer weather the maximum temperature shown on a BBC weather map in the North of Scotland can be as much as 12ºc below the actual highest recorded in the Central Highlands. That factor is a genuine business grievance in the tourism sector in this part of the world.

A latitudinal kilometre will look shorter in Scotland though because the viewpoint is more directly above the south, making Scotland much closer to the horizon (we're on a spherical surface) and thus appearing shorter. And as mentioned, a longitudinal kilometre will appear longer on a flat map of Scotland because of the distortion problems introduced when having to turn a spherical surface into a flat surface.

It's an interesting point though, and I actually agree that the BBC should revert back to the old, flat-style map, as opposed to a curved map that is viewed inexplicably at an angle that favours the south.

You're last point about the temperatures of inland locations is totally understandable.

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Posted
  • Location: Royston, Herts 76m asl
  • Location: Royston, Herts 76m asl
5 minutes ago, Relativistic said:

A latitudinal kilometre will look shorter in Scotland though because the viewpoint is more directly above the south, making Scotland much closer to the horizon (we're on a spherical surface) and thus appearing shorter. And as mentioned, a longitudinal kilometre will appear longer on a flat map of Scotland because of the distortion problems introduced when having to turn a spherical surface into a flat surface.

It's an interesting point though, and I actually agree that the BBC should revert back to the old, flat-style map, as opposed to a curved map that is viewed inexplicably at an angle that favours the south.

You're last point about the temperatures of inland locations is totally understandable.

I agree.  How is it at all beneficial to see the curvature of the Earth?  It may be scientifically correct, but how does it benefit the viewer.  Indeed, I wouldn't even concede that it's scientifically correct because who decides that it should be viewed from the south?  Imagine if it was viewed from the Shetlands, with viewers in the south having to judge small distances to denote large areas.

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