This is the end

[kold weather]

Yep this is a massive loss to NW. I know nearly everytime I have ever made a long term forecast (well, perhaps more medium to be fair) I've always felt happier when GP came along and posted something along the same lines.

One of NWs greats, no doubt about it, I'd like to think there are some people out there have absorbed enough information from him (and others, CC, etc) that can take on his position, but its going to be hard to replace that is for sure!

[Severe Siberian icy blast]

GP I think I can speak for everyone on hear when I say you will be greatly missed , your forecasting techniques and vast knowledge on the stratesphere gave netweather as a forecasting company the cutting edge above the rest , i speak very very highly of you as a professional , and I'm not surprised one bit to see you have been offered the position you have .

All the very best in the future , and thankyou for all your insight over the years. The standard has been set very high by you and just hope someone has big enough feet to fill the boots you left behind .

Best regards

Shaun

[Froze were the Days]

Yep congratulations Stewart on your new post and hope all goes well - I have to say that over the last few years I have taken your LRF's pretty seriously and that can't be said for a number of other more well known forecasters so that says a lot about you and your success rate, again you've been fairly accurate with this winter's forecast and will no doubt leave a hole come late November (and other seasons) when the majority wait in anticipation on your thoughts.

Well deserved and all the best.

[Don]

Congratulations Stewart and all the best. As others have said a big loss to Netweather but this sounds like a great opportunity!

[mushymanrob]

i echo the many sentiments and good wishes,

Edited March 30, 2013 by mushymanrob

[Frosty.]

Yep this is a massive loss to NW. I know nearly everytime I have ever made a long term forecast (well, perhaps more medium to be fair) I've always felt happier when GP came along and posted something along the same lines.

One of NWs greats, no doubt about it, I'd like to think there are some people out there have absorbed enough information from him (and others, CC, etc) that can take on his position, but its going to be hard to replace that is for sure!

I agree, but I was thinking that Chio has a very similar style of reports to GP so the quality will continue.

[Polar Gael]

Many congrats on the new role, Stewart. Very well deserved recognition indeed.

Your posts and forecasts on NW have been superb to read down the years and have been a big part of what makes this site so great.

I only hope that we will see you on here again one day.

Goodbye and good luck.

All the best,

PG

[Guest pjl20101]

Gavin p wishes all the best to GP too as I posted on gavsweathervids.com earlier. Think mr partridge is needed on both here and TWO where he puts most of his devotion too, I am not trying to be too pushy but we need unbiased knowledgeable folk and Gavin p is just that.

[Cloud 10]

[joggs]

Blimey, sad to see you go Stewart but good luck for the future and hope its a success.

[Ladyofthestorm]

A massive congratulations GP and it is bittersweet that we will no longer have your guidance on the LRF. You have left huge shoes to fill, if they can be filled at all.

All the very best for the future

LOTS x

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

Hmmm...now that is a long range forecast we ALL missed. Its all been said but well done for sticking by your beliefs.

BFTP

[Methuselah]

Judging by the fact that the overall winter CET was, what, 0.4C below average, I guess GP's LRF wasn't the only one to end up a wee bit wide-of-the-mark?

Ho hum, such is ramping?

[feb1991blizzard]

Stewart's forecast in my opinion was a cracker, to call a cold spell 2 months out and as it neared to then call a quick wave response to the SSW when virtually everything pointed to it being a week or so later than it was is excellent, 5 winters on the bounce his forecast has been the best in the business, a couple of summer forecasts have gone wrong but winter has been sensational,

[Guest pjl20101]

The excellent bits about Stewart were when he was wrong or went off track he would admit it and evaluate the errors to put them right. Unlike some forecasters which I won't mention he is someone who I had upmost respect for. The teleconnections knowledge that he possessed was superb and to be honest not even an average met office person could achieve what he has achieved. It speaks for itself his record with forecasting. All in all I think Stewart has been outstanding particularly with the stratospheric knowledge and how SSTs have an impact on the atmosphere. A real shame he has moved on from net weather but he is doing something he enjoys which is actual proper forecasting in his own niche if you like. An asset to meteorology.

[Darren Bown]

Such a lovely 'last post' and great to read. All the best to you in the future!

[fUnKy]

New to the community but could see how highly you were regarded on here and you seemed to have hung up your netweather boots on a good one!

Good luck in all!

[DAVID SNOW]

This is not even the the begining of the end.

Good luck.

[Tamara]

Stewart's forecast in my opinion was a cracker, to call a cold spell 2 months out and as it neared to then call a quick wave response to the SSW when virtually everything pointed to it being a week or so later than it was is excellent, 5 winters on the bounce his forecast has been the best in the business, a couple of summer forecasts have gone wrong but winter has been sensational,

Yes, I think that it should be remembered that his forecasting was/is on a macro scale basis using the technological meteorological formula and tools at his disposal and not a micro scale synoptic IMBY UK analysis. The bigger picture dictates not what happens offshore from Dymchurch or Cork, or inland at Melton Mowbray or Pontefract but across the NH as a whole

Obviously most on here realised that his views were increasingly getting a wider audience all the time away from the domesticity of this forum, but his was a long range seasonal presentation and was never strictly (in the more formal sense) just meant to cater for, or please, Net Weather MOD thread audiences day in day out in terms of every 'That ECM' or crazy GFS output that hinted at the next TDAT scenario.

That said, because he loves the cold and snow himself, it was great to see his posts ramp up in reflection of the belief he had in his forecast. That set the place alight and makes for the excitement, fun and entertainment that surely should go with an internet forum. Besides, its not as if it was based on wishful thinking anyway as time has proved.

He struck a good pitch in believing that his evidence was justified towards an increasingly cold pattern with High pressure blocking to the NE becoming more prevalent as a feedback factor through the winter and that there would be a very cold temperature anomaly to our North and East the further we got into the winter, that could easily provide some deep cold for the UK. Especially as such cold air in proximity, as indeed verified in style, would be a consequence of correctly predicting that the conditions in the stratosphere would be conduicive for an SSW into the New Year. This was in accordance/agreement with the excellent technical analysis as posted on the Stratosphere thread from back in the closing weeks of last year and carried through the season itself to verification so emphatically as we have seen in the latter part of the winter and first half of Spring.

On that basis, I think his own expectations were exceeded, and also just about every other respected meteorological organisation was confounded to a greater degree and saw little of what was coming in the main. But the detail and rationale provided was earlier and more thorough and thus probably the better of most others, shall we say, competitors.

On that basis this has been an extended season where, on a slow burner, ramping has had some justification for sure

I think that the spectacular freeze this late in the season couldn't have been better or more aptly timed for his departure

Edited April 7, 2013 by Tamara Road