The Met Office has posted another blog on this subject today

http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/08/26/a-look-back-at-this-weeks-news/

So this whole fuss is over nothing?

Why has no one told me this before now!

Okay this one is entirely my fault for not looking. 

Very interesting piece from Dame Julia Slingo here:

http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/08/

I highlight this section:

It’s important to understand that no weather forecasting organization, whether it is a National Met Service like the Met Office or an independent company, can provide a service without a forecast, and that it is the leading meteorological agencies, like the Met Office, that build and deliver those forecasts. So whoever the BBC chooses to deliver their weather services in future, you can be sure that Met Office observations and forecasts will continue to be at the heart of them. 

I read this to mean:

Numerical weather prediction models now produce weather forecasts. Human intervention basically only adds value at the presentation level. If correct this suggests changes for the Met Office in the future.

The BBC have already stated that whatever they do about day to day forecasts they are keeping the MetO for doing Severe Weather Warnings.

So to avoid ending up with a nonsense when models conflict, I don't see any alternative than that they use the MetO output for all the other forecasts as well

I think what will change is the style of presentation. I think the dedicated Weather studio and 20 or so Met Office presenters will go and be replaced with a much lower profile "Weather Desk" approach like the other channels already do

I could, however, be completetly wrong

That was my point. The Met Office as I understand it may be providing nwp data to the new provider. The new provider will then present and explain this on the BBC as the forecast. In this scenario I would say the Met Office are providing forecast data, but not the forecast. I realise the distinction is a subtle one. Nonetheless, the implication of the blog is the Met Office consider the provision of forecast data to be the same as the provision of forecasts. I've read third party comments elsewhere suggesting the Met Office see an increasingly automated future with less input from human forecasters, and the blog post could be read as support for this.  

People talking about a weather channel over here?? Lol!! 

On continental North America interesting weather is happening somewhere virtually every hour of every day. It's no issue at all to fill the broadcasts with stacks of forecast information and news on current weather. Over here the virtually unanimous mundane shite we endure on a daily basis would insure viewing figures started on the floor and went down from there. It would not only be a total flop - it would be a total waste of time and money and be completely unnecessary in every possible way. 

Good point 

Rolling bulletins describing unsettled weather in the NW and best conditions further SE would get old real quick.

Malcolm
Wakefield & Gothenburg, SWE

Some People can't miss the Jeremy Kyle show?.

A hail shower in Peckham might turn out to be quite interesting?.

We will be back to this hail shower after these quick adds.

Then we will go to see a big splashy puddle in Manchester.

I think it could work?.

I remember The Weather Channel being aired in the early days of Sky before they started the subscription service, and I have to say it was pretty dire, and the broadcast ceased after a few months. The UK is too small an area to give much content, but it may work if they were to adopt a European/Scandinavian approach.

A weather channel could work here , but obviously would have to encompass world weather as well. There is plenty of scope for things like skiing conditions, inshore waters , fishing conditions e.t.c. In the U.S.A. people living in say, Montana view Kansas as a different country so is no different to a weather channel here covering say Switzerland. 

Or vice versa today. 

I agree, you couldnt have the Weather Channel just concentrating on the UK's weather, it would have to include weather around the world, special features , a look back on UK weather events.

The BBC stated they would announce who will replace the met office as the supplier of weather services by the end of the year. Given the date today does anyone think they will try to sneak this out over the holiday season when most people, including the media, are on holiday

Or maybe they've been having second thoughts.

Given how the present government would react, I doubt it'd be a certain member of the Corbyn family.

Outsourcing is weasel-speak for selling the family silver. The government would probably get a good deal from China.

mind you i believe the Met Office is still part funded by the government, so by asking the BBC to save money, the government might have inadvertently increased the amount they have to provide. The political game goes on........ 

I remember watching BBC Reporting Scotland news bulletins as a kid in the 80's and back then the newsreaders themselves used to give a brief weather summary for the next day at the end of each bulletin, even at the end of the main evening news. They didn't start employing designated "forecasters" who gave a detailed forecast for the next day and beyond until the early 1990s IIRC.

I don't know what output the current BBC forecasts are based on but they couldn't have been more wrong for tomorrow's forecast. The app I have on my phone called Weatherpro has been consistent for the last week about heavy rain tomorrow for here and most of the north of the Uk which was the complete opposite to the mainly sunny conditions the BBC were forecasting up until a big u-turn yesterday. This has happened on many occasions this year.  This is coming from someone who used to consider the BBC the best forecasts the best 10 years ago.