Hi everyone. The weather has been turning very much chillier recently and as we move inexorably towards Winter the most observant amongst us may have noticed that the 20th (yesterday) say the first flakes of snow and hail fall in the heavy showers that passed by the area. However, those that have read some of the National Press of late may well have expected rather more than this, so what went wrong?
Well in fact nothing went wrong. The weather pattern that has been shown of late never really looked like giving anything other than a colder spell of weather such as has occurred with temperatures falling below average at times along with the first real frosts of the season. This is nothing unusual for November and certainly not newsworthy. However, as is also not unusual the National press found the merest hint of colder weather the excuse to produce scaremongering stories of Winter Armageddon and blizzards lasting a month etc etc with multiple deaths likely from extreme cold and the like, all of course totally fictitious.
So why do they do it? Well of course the number 1 requisite for the Daily Newspapers is it's quest to sell copies and to do that they need some gritty and newsworthy items to impact readership. For some of the time it's the individual celebrity type stories with scandalous revelations on private lives that get people drooling over their coffee while at other times it's the weather which all UK citizens like a good story about to churn over. After all it's a subject we all fascinate over and talk about everyday of our lives so the Weather is an easy target for the media. Of course to achieve this the editors don't just fictitiously make up the info they print, instead they are fed information by highly sensationalist people from organisations who are in themselves in Weather business to make money rather than to provide a non profit making service. As a result they are primed to give the papers the grains of information they need to produce a full scale stories which is nearly always immensely over exaggerated and impacted by a punchy headline.
So what's the cure? Well the best cure is never believe anything you read in the press about future weather as it is highly vetted and added to without foundation. The freedom of press within the UK allows them to print almost anything they want, especially on subjects like the weather as they cannot be held to account for their inaccurate stories as no particular people are involved. Anyone reading this would be better off avoiding the press and listen to the reliable daily broadcasts issued by our excellent UKMO team and the BBC broadcasts to which they are partnered with. If they don't mention it you can bet your life that it ain't gonna happen.
Alternatively you can turn to many of the amateur weather forecasters that, like myself produce their own un-sensationalist forecasts using the wealth of charts and data supplied by the internet. For my part I will never over dramatise any weather prediction and will only give severe weather events as and when they are necessary and continue to aim to show what implications such events will have on the General Public's day to day lives.
So what of the truth about the coming weeks. Well as you may have read from my latest forecasts there is very little sign of anything particualrly harsh weatherwise in the coming weeks. In fact it looks quite the opposite with benign and quiet weather with a lot of cloud, very little rain let alone snow and just patchy fog and frost night and morning, all very typical for this stage of the season and outside of the hazard of any freezing fog certainly not disruptive.
As a footnote I will be releasing my Winter Seasonal Forecast within the next day or two so stay tuned to my website for details of this soon.
Edited by user
Thursday, November 21, 2013 11:19:49 AM
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Reason: Not specified
Martin G
Kilmersdon Radstock Bath Somerset