Met Office Explanations

[johnholmes]

this is the full explanation from the Met Office of the words used in their forecasts;

temperatures, weather expressions and what they mean.

http://www.met-office.gov.uk/weather/europe/uk/guide.html

issued by John Holmes

[West is Best]

this is the full explanation from the Met Office of the words used in their forecasts;

temperatures, weather expressions and what they mean.

http://www.met-office.gov.uk/weather/europe/uk/guide.html

issued by John Holmes

Very useful to have the link John - thanks.

We had some comments (Summer Blizzard I think) about how to define a winter as 'severe'. Does that word actually appear in the Met O official designations anywhere? I can't find it.

[johnholmes]

hi WIB

Not as such in their definitions. What they will do if they believe it justifies that term is do a Press release about it. The same for severe heat in summer, storms etc.

hope that helps

John

[agowerguy83]

Thanks John for the link;

Found a few other interesting pages on Met Office site

Heat and sun advice: http://www.met-office.gov.uk/weather/europ...dvice/heat.html

Heat health watch: http://www.met-office.gov.uk/weather/europ...eat_health.html

UK climate: http://www.met-office.gov.uk/education/sec...bi_climate.html

[Thundery wintry showers]

Good of John to flag this up; it certainly makes interesting and illuminating reading. A very good set of definitions too, which I would personally be more than happy to go along with if I was in the Met Office.

That said, some of those definitions aren't consistent with what we see on the BBC forecasts; I'm quite used to forecasters saying "dry and bright" to describe any variant of dry weather, ranging from the MetO's definition to unbroken sunshine. I'm pretty certain of this; I recall often seeing forecasts and thinking "okay, so that means dry, but what about sunshine?". I doubt that it's the fault of the MetO though.

[acbrixton]

this is the full explanation from the Met Office of the words used in their forecasts;

temperatures, weather expressions and what they mean.

http://www.met-office.gov.uk/weather/europe/uk/guide.html

issued by John Holmes

John, many thanks. A very useful link.

Regards

Andrew