Raising a Voice for Better Public Weather Services

Living in a part of the world with such differing seasons - and feeling the change as a beautiful summer starts to fade, it is now perhaps the time to bring back up memories of earlier in the year, of a cold and wild spring - and in particular the blizzard on March 22nd. Roland Chaplain is currently campaigning for better public weather services in Scotland - and would like to hear from anyone with views on how the impact could have been lessened if a high category red alert had been issued the previous afternoon, and views on how a future public weather service, accountable directly to the Scottish Government, might look and function.

The BBC's notorious 'Minimised Scotland Weather Map'

"The warning system currently used by the UK Meteorological Office failed to provide the top level of red alert warning.

If this had been given by lunchtime the day before, action could have been taken which would have resulted in a much lower level of loss of livestock across Galloway, Arran and Kintyre. The locally produced   mwis.org.uk  forecast issued at that time highlighted the danger of “considerable drifting”.

The Met Office Headquarters are in Exeter. Its forecast models are some of the most reliable of those of any State weather service. They predicted the components of the weather on March 22^nd very accurately (wind strength, temperatures, amount of precipitation, timing, duration, extent, etc).  So, this is not about forecast accuracy. Rather it is about the timeliness, effectiveness and local knowledge components of a public weather service. Above all it's about having a public weather alert warnings system that is fit for purpose for Scotland's rural as well as urban needs."

To get in touch with Roland, contact him here