Met Office woes reprised
Despite the rash of criticism over its performance — after appearing to forecast the direct opposite of what the real weather — the Met Office continues to underperform.
Hoteliers on the English Riviera are complaining again that the bad weather forecasts for two recent partially sunny Bank holiday weekends, have cost them a fortune in lost revenues.
During the recent ash cloud disaster for the airline industry, when planes were grounded and losses were several billions of pounds, guess which institution was gathering and number-crunching the data for Europe and beyond. Yes, our old chums at the Met Office.
As far as anyone can remember, when they operated off the Air Ministry roof with a few thermometers and a rain gauge, they were a national treasure. They even got the weather spot on for the D-Day landings.
Those of us who live in the West Country suspect it was their move to Exeter that broke the back of this once fine body of cloud watchers. Some believe that many of the boffins are lounging around on the beaches rather than compiling their charts.
Actually, it seems to be their involvement with international affairs and global problems that has destroyed Met Office credibility.
The United Nations and NASA relied heavily on Met Office-sponsored research at the University of East Anglia for the climate change outrage, just as the European Union trusted them with Icelandic volcanic eruptions.
Megalomania probably comes near to the truth.
