NorthantsSnow

Too dumbed down and patronising just like the BBC national forecasts these days. Sorry, I didn't like it.

Let me guess, Northampton too far north and west to be a part of this evening's fun and games?

Nothing of note here, just some more rain.

How do you even go about getting lightning shots like that? Please explain! Nothing happening here by the way, but you knew that.

Sadly it looks like nobody captured Rob's final BBC One forecast. However, someone did manage to capture his final edition of Weatherview late last night (his final broadcast, but presumably prerecorded). http://www.tvforum.co.uk/thenewsroom/the-weather-thread-28723/page-37 (2nd post down) At least the BBC announcer acknowledged it.

Good quality weather presentation on TV is dying a death. End of an era. Shame on you, Met Office.

To my absolute amazement, it is snowing lightly here in Northampton this evening. Unexpected to say the least but I'm not complaining!

On the home page you can go back and look at maps for previous days (calendar at the bottom). The days that are marked blue are finished and if you click will load a map showing where all the winners were. (or potential winners) Hope this helps!

Remember me telling you about how my pick for Wednesday was marginal?? Well I wasn't wrong! :o A very lucky win there to end the comp. Brings my total winnings over 5 weeks to £130, same as Koppite. Delighted with that.

Joe laminate floori's blog makes for grim reading this morning. He's convinced southern Europe is place to be this winter. To quote "Most of the "continent" is cold and it's Ireland, northern and central Great Britain and Scandinavia that has the shot at warmer than normal." Most of the continent cold...and us warmer. Sounds like the sort of farcical thing that could happen, so he'll probably turn out to be right.

Yessss! My square in NE Scotland won on Sunday. Probably one of my favourites wins of the promotion because only a limited number of squares won in northern Britain. Not very confident about tomorrow, the rain looks lighter and patchier than initially billed, and I was forced to go further east with my pick than I would have ideally liked. Northampton could well be the eastern most extent of the rain, especially in the morning. Perhaps becoming more widespread for a time in the early afternoon before the front dies out and the next one moves in from the W.

Well, whilst it's accuracy is of course yet to be determined, just like any prediction, it is a good forecast in my view. Why? It is well explained, easy to understand and provides sufficient levels of detail including key dates and events to watch out for. By contrast, too many forecasts I read these days are very loosely worded and paper-thin in terms of proper detail. It was refreshing to read something a bit more specific. So when people are using positive adjectives to describe this forecast I don't think it necessarily means they are doing so because they like what they hear, more that it was a good attempt. The accuracy will of course prove itself one way or another over time, and I haven't read any comments which suggest otherwise. For those reasons I find some of the criticisms made to be very unfair. It is a very brave thing to do putting out a bold forecast like this, especially when you have a proven track record to maintain like BFTP and RJS. It would be a bit different if it was some amateur like me putting out a forecast based on nothing more than my hopes and dreams and it was as well received as this, but actually BFTP and RJS have come up with something a bit more scientifically sound than that, so they deserve nothing but credit in my view and I await with interest the final outcome. Good luck with your forecast BFTP & RJS. I, like many others am sure, have my fingers crossed that this one comes true!

Not much left in England at 10am. Unbelievable! Northamptonshire pretty much all taken up so had to chance a little further E - risky if the front stalls over more central areas as currently indicated.

Missed out again today (picking square) but won another tenner yesterday for my spot in N. Devon bringing my total winnings to a cool £110. According to the Walkers site there will be a new grid for the 17th on Monday morning. So it seems you'll be able to pick squares right up to Tuesday, rather than Tuesday being the last day. Just to add, I seem to be doing better predicting further in advance than I was when it was just a couple of days ahead based on my increased win rate! For comparison, Coca Cola are giving away 1 x Xbox Elite with Kinect and Game every hour for a whole month. So at roughly £200 per prize, that's £4,800 a day and £144,000 over the course of the promotion.

Just got back from work ready to make my pick to find Monday's map is full already! On the plus side, I won another tenner yesterday.

I doubt it too, hence "hopefully." I sent an e-mail to the Met Office as well. I got a copy and paste jobby back. Nobody is listening on this one I'm afraid. If the BBC and the Met Office wish to shoot themselves in the feet then I suppose we better let them get on with it. Shame for Rob though who will be greatly missed.

The BBC didn't even bother to take the time to reply to my e-mail. Perhaps I didn't direct it to the right place, I just used the contact us link on the BBC Weather website. Rob is still on the BBC at the moment. Last saw him doing the forecast both on Saturday & Sunday night. And Phil Avery was also on the other night so I don't think any of them have gone yet. Hopefully after the strong reaction they'll have had a change of heart.

You can find the exact gridspots in your account. But I can't be bothered doing it that way because then you have to waste time locating them on the grid. Instead I keep a list for all my picks with day, timeslot and place name. My remaining picks for this week: Thu- Auchenbreck, W Scotland (1100-1400) Fri- Bittadon, N Devon (0800-1100) Sat- Sound of Sleat, W Scotland (0800-1100) Sun- Aultmore, NE Scotland (0800-1100)

Unlucky mate! I won £20 for my picks yesterday, so I'm very happy with that. I have nothing picked until Thursday now. Then I have one pick per day for Thu, Fri, Sat & Sun. And hopefully tonight I will be able to submit one final prediction for either Mon or Tue. (whatever is left)

It's all a conspiracy to keep us up later eating crisps! Mine still isn't working. I'll keep at it as I have no work tomorrow. Got through. Pure guesswork at this range so like you guys went for a spot in NW Scotland in the early morning as it seems to be the wettest area generally. The spot I've chosen was a winner for me early on in the promotion so I'm hoping for repeat success!

Yes the website isn't working properly at the minute. I guess the midnight rush must be having an effect.

Won £10 yesterday! On Friday I've gone for a spot in N. Devon.

Yeah, I've gone for a spot in Western Scotland between 1100-1400.

I remember in a similar setup the rain crossed the country much quicker than the GFS was suggesting. So I'm thinking of going against the GFS and picking somewhere further east. Tricky one though. Earlier it had everything further west so it's already shunting it E.

Yeah, it was fairly light rain so I was fully expecting it to be hit & miss. My square in N Ireland today looks better. Just watching some moderate rain move through the area on the radar.