West is Best
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Everything posted by West is Best
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My views on this are by now well known
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Wow really really heavy snow now Woking. Beautiful.
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As it happens, no. I'm a careful driver: clean licence, no points and have never had to attend a speed awareness course. But that neatly illustrates the problem with the warning system. You, and one or two others, are projecting your own knowledge onto the general population. Most people are pretty clueless about weather forecasting and don't know how to read weather charts. They need strong and persistent warnings to avoid dangerous conditions. They won't understand why, nor heed them. But by repeatedly passing on the knowledge, far enough in advance and with sufficient strength of purpose, it will get through. Because we're not used to it, don't drive with snow tyres or chains, don't know how to drive in the conditions when we have, most people should not have been travelling in cars across much of Britain for the last 36 hours. It's simply too dangerous. The role in warning people about that lies with the Met Office, sufficiently far in advance and with sufficient strength. The Met Office manifestly got this wrong both in terms of extent of the warnings and the release of them.
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Amber is no good for what we have experienced. And as I mentioned above, the colour is meaningless as a warning colour. It means put your foot down for most people! Most of southern Britain should have been on Red and without a shadow of doubt Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset should have been. As others have mentioned above, much of northern Britain also should have been on Red as well as parts of eastern England: Lincolnshire and Norfolk for sure. We don't see conditions like this often in Britain: once a decade probably. Most people are ignorant and unprepared and need repeated reinforced warning well in advance. That's what professional forecasters are supposed to do.
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It was not spot on. It wasn't even close. Hampshire and Somerset weren't mentioned, yet were in the firing line. Yes it evolves, but everyone on here could see that it was going to hit further east, as could radar models like HIRLAM. Anyway, aside from their inaccuracy, my main point is the timing of warnings. They should issue them days, not hours, ahead in such severe conditions. That's what the word forecast means.
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Well that's manifestly untrue. They had to extend the red zone eastwards because they got it wrong first time round. Should have followed Netweather ...
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The Daily Express is the worst culprit for that. On the naming of storms, Emma is far too cute for such a monster, though it did enable the good old Sun to have some fun: That's so true about us not being prepared. And that's all the more reason to warn people. I've seen numerous accidents with cars skidding all over the place. Yellow, amber, red is really not all that clever nomenclature because for many people amber means Amber Gambler ... i.e. put your foot down and go through the lights. Amber means you can go through. It's not sufficiently a 'warning' these days. Only red means 'stop.' I think we need to realise that a lot of people aren't weather fanatics and although we all saw this coming on here, others won't have. Newspaper readership has plunged. In my view, the Met Office should have issued RED for most of Britain 4 days ago and made sure that message got out to every single media outlet. Why? Because this was a once in a decade storm that is, without a single shadow of doubt, life threatening.
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At least 10 weather-related deaths, hundreds of motorists stranded and the army called in. How many of these people would have heeded warnings had they been issued days ahead? I don't know. But it's absolutely ridiculous for so-called professional forecasters to produce warnings a handful of hours at best before an event. In the case of yesterday's South-west warning, which entirely failed to predict the hit on Hampshire and Somerset, it was issued at 08.05: after many people had already left for work. A forecaster is supposed to see things in advance. Almost everyone here on Netweather could. Anyone with a GFS chart, or similar, could. By issuing warnings 2 to 3 days ahead and properly warning people lives might have been saved. I'm not going to be inflammatory by suggesting blood is on hands, because everyone ultimately takes responsibility, but what the hell is the point of a national forecasting service if they can't even manage to warn the nation in plenty of time to take necessary action. Not everyone will like this post, including a couple of cheerleaders for the Met Office, but I hope in the spirit of debate it will be allowed to stand. Because, frankly, the Met Office warning system needs a firm kick up the backside.
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Erm ... revisionism galore there. In case they haven't noticed it's 22.25 so hardly 'Thursday afternoon'. Seriously, they are useless.
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Worth mentioning too that the latest BBC forecast has heavy snow tomorrow across much of this area
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The Met Office have so messed this up. Amateur forecasters on here proving, again, that they are more on the ball than the paid professionals in Exeter.
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Well the snow is fab here in Woking, it's still snowing heavily and the radar looks amazing. So I'm not so sure?
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Blimey ... really pepping up. This was 14.30: And now: Southern Britain in the firing line
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Blimey ... really pepping up. This was 14.30: And now: Southern Britain in the firing line
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Agreed. I mean, frankly, this is the most serious and severe setup I can remember since 1978/9. Admittedly I was in Africa for the 1987 (or whenever) event. But how often do we get this? Once a decade, if that. There are life-threatening conditions out there without a shadow of doubt and people shouldn't be heading out unless vital.
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Came up from Exeter yesterday (DAMNIT!!) but surprised at how much snow is falling in Surrey between Woking and Guildford. Snowing quite heavily now and looking at this radar, surely we're still in the firing line?
