7 replies to this topic

[ElectricSnowStorm]

here is the link 150years of forecasting Met Office site, with some special links included, with a photo competition with an exciting prize, and an 150 year anniversary timeline!
What ever the weather the Met Office has been there and kept us up to date with the weather,

from floods..

storms..

and snow..


providing an excellent service through all the years of forecasting and to this very day.

Thankyou to all the staff at the Met Office!

Edited by ElectricSnowStorm, 28 July 2011 - 04:28 .

[Radiating Dendrite]

The timeline is a bit bland though.

Could they not have thought of more weather events to put on it?

[Coast]

The Met Office is also now no longer a division of the Ministry of Defence:

Quote

Three major providers of government data have been drawn under the umbrella of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in a step towards the establishment of a Public Data Corporation (PDC). Ordnance Survey, the Met Office and Land Registry all became the responsibility of BIS today, although all will continue to operate as trading funds in the immediate future with their chief executives reporting to organisational boards.

The move will be seen as a step towards resolving a major problem facing the government's open data campaign. While it has made a virtue of making public sector data freely available for re-use, the three organisations' trading fund status requires them to pay for themselves. In the cases of Ordnance Survey and the Met Office revenue has come largely from the sale of data.

Decisions on the membership, structure and commercial strategy of the PDC will be taken after a government consultation on data policy, to be launched soon. In the meantime, BIS minister Edward Davey and Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude will jointly chair a PDC transition board.

BIS permanent secretary Martin Donnelly said: "It is good to welcome the Land Registry, Met Office and Ordnance Survey to the BIS family. The talents and abilities of their staff will be a welcome addition to the department's teamwork to ensure sustainable economic growth across the UK.

"Staff and customers should know that these organisations will continue to deliver a high level of service."

Previously, Ordnance Survey has been under the umbrella of Communities and Local Government, the Met Office under the Ministry of Defence, and Land Registry under the Ministry of Justice. BIS said the PDC will not replace any of the organisations' boards.

http://www.guardian....ata-corporation

[AderynCoch]

Schoolboy error in the July 2007 section - Cumbria was badly hit by floods in November 2009, not 2010.

[johnholmes]

AderynCoch, on 28 July 2011 - 08:55 , said:

Schoolboy error in the July 2007 section - Cumbria was badly hit by floods in November 2009, not 2010.

best you e mail them about it AC I'm sure they would be grateful for that being pointed out-poor proof reading it would seem although its easy to see after items go to print as I know from my own experience.

[AderynCoch]

I might just do that John.

[ElectricSnowStorm]

The Met Office History

The Met Office was established in 1854 as a small department within the Board of Trade under Robert FitzRoy as a service to mariners. The loss of the passenger vessel, the Royal Charter, and 459 lives off the coast of Anglesey in a violent storm in October 1859 led to the first gale warning service. In 1861 FitzRoy had established a network of 15 coastal stations from which visual gale warnings could be provided for ships at sea.

The development of the electric telegraph in the 1870s led to the more rapid dissemination of warnings and also led to the development of an observational network which could then be used to provide synoptic analyses.

In 1879 the Met Office started providing forecast to newspapers.
Following the First World War, the Met Office became part of the Air Ministry in 1920, the weather observed from the top of Adastral House (where the Air Ministry was based) giving rise to the phrase "The weather on the Air Ministry roof". As a result of the need for accurate weather information for aviation, the Met Office located many of its observation and data collection points on RAF airfields, and this accounts for the large number of military airfields mentioned in weather reports even today. In 1936 the Met Office split with services to the Royal Navy being provided by its own forecasting services.

It currently holds a quasi-governmental role, being required to act commercially, but also has remained an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence since April 1990. A branch of the Met Office known as the Mobile Met Unit (MMU) accompany forward units in times of conflict advising the armed forces of the prevailing conditions for battle, particularly the RAF. The Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research and the National Meteorological Library and Archive are also parts of the Met Office.

On July 18th 2011, the Met Office became part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
In September 2003 the Met Office moved its headquarters to a purpose-built £80m structure near Exeter Airport and the A30, in Devon, being officially opened on 21 June 2004—its 150th anniversary—by Robert May, Baron May of Oxford, from its previous location of Bracknell in Berkshire, and it has a worldwide presence – including a forecasting centre in Aberdeen, and offices in Gibraltar and on the Falklands. Other outposts lodge in establishments such as the Joint Centre for Mesoscale Meteorology (JCMM) at University of Reading in Berkshire, the Joint Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Research (JCHMR) site at Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and there is also a Met Office presence at many Army and Air Force bases within the UK and abroad (including frontline units in conflict zones).Royal Navy weather forecasts are generally provided by naval officers, not Met Office personnel.


One of the British stalwarts, the Shipping Forecast, is produced by the Met Office and broadcast on BBC
Radio 4. The Shipping Forecast has long been of real interest to, and vital to the safety of, mariners
traversing the Sea Areas around the British Isles. Less vitally, the Shipping Forecast has been the subject of
both books and song lyrics.

The Met Office is responsible for issuing Severe Weather Warnings for the United Kingdom through the
National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS). These warn of weather events that may affect transport
infrastructure and endanger people's lives. In March 2008, the system was improved and a new stage of
warning was introduced, the 'Advisory'.

Its main role is to produce forecast models by gathering all the information from weather satellites in space
and observations on earth, then processing it using two IBM supercomputers with a variety of models,
based on a software package known as the Unified Model. The principle weather products for UK customers
are 36-hour forecasts from the operational 1.5 km resolution UKV model covering the UK and surroundings
(replacing the 4 km model), 48-hour forecasts from the 12 km resolution NAE model covering Europe and
the North Atlantic, and 144-hour forecasts from the 25 km resolution global model (replacing the 40 km
global model). The Met Office's Global Model forecast has consistently been in the top 3 for global weather
forecast performance over the past few decades in independent verification to WMO standards. A wide
range of other products for other regions of the globe are sold to customers abroad, provided for MOD
operations abroad or provided free to developing countries in Africa. If necessary, forecasters may make
adjustments to the computer forecasts. This main bulk of data is then passed on to companies who acquire
it. Data is stored in the Met Office's own PP-format.

Formed in 2009 the Flood Forecasting Centre (FFC) is a joint venture between the Environment Agency and
the Met Office to provide warnings of flooding which may affect England and Wales. The FFC is based in the
Operations Centre at the Met Office headquarters in Exeter. In Scotland this role is performed by the
Scottish Flood Forecasting Service, a joint venture between the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency
(SEPA) and the Met Office.

The Met Office is also one of only two World Area Forecast Centres or WAFCs, and is referred to as WAFC
London. The other WAFC is located in Kansas, USA but known as WAFC Washington. WAFC data is used
daily to safely and economically route aircraft, particularly on long-haul journeys. The data provides details
of wind speed and direction, air temperature, cloud type and tops, and other features of interest to the
aviation community.

Edited by ElectricSnowStorm, 30 July 2011 - 03:50 .

[Victor Meldrew]

ElectricSnowStorm, on 28 July 2011 - 04:18 , said:

providing an excellent service through all the years of forecasting and to this very day.

Excellent service hahahahaha, so brilliant i always turn to the internet forecasts of netweather posters and ukw!