In an effort to breath some life into the forum with a question I thought I would start this thread.

Does anyone know how internet weather forecasts are compiled? By this I mean the ones for locations abroad that the MetO and others compile.

I I find their consistency and accuracy dubious at best and are they really worth the band width they are written on?

The MetO compiles such forecast and so does the BBC website but often the forecasts conflict yet they must be using the same data!

Others like Weather Online and Weather Underground rarely agree and chop and change all over the place.

I would love to know how these forecasts are compiled, I don't imagine an experienced forecaster is sat in an office pondering the likely weather forecast for Corfu so they must be computer generated but how?

Anyone involved in the forecasting industry might know and I would be interested to learn.

Andy

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So far as I know, the only genuine forecasts on the interent are the written ones.  Everything else is simply based on the latest model output and may vary depending on which model is used.   I guess some may use more complex, algorithms to produce a better interpretation of what ground conditons will be like - but they are still only as good as one single model run.   And we don't base real weather forecasts on just one model run!   Hence I never take any notice of them.

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Currently on holiday in Lanzarote and these forecasts have proved to be an absolute waste of time.

Looking at the MetO and Weatheronline sites both said yesterday would be cloudy with just an hour or two of sun but it shone for 9 hours and the temp rose to 23c, the forecasts couldn't even nowcast saying conditions at the airport were cloudy yet in reality there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Today has been similar with dire predictions of a cool, cloudy day but the cloud at 11am and it's been sunny since.

A few days ago I rightly predicted that these days would be fine with the Azores High being close by and winds across the Island the usually north easterly, where all this poor weather was going to come from was beyond me.

Conclusion is that internet forecasts particularly those abroad are a waste of time and it's better to use your own forecasting skills by looking at the model output up to 5 days ahead.

Andy

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