Weather forecasts

[Lord Tyrion]

had suggested we go to Linden or Longhirst as they were both pretty reasonable on TOT, but Bishop Auckland got the vote as it was free. Talk about false economies! Am now stripping paint from a staircase instead and feeling pretty pissed off. to make matters worse, tomorrow's game has just been cancelled as well as the guy i was playing with needs to work

Not good. At the moment I would suggest Longhirst as it drains really well. I was at the driving range there the other day and the courses both look immaculate. Linden would be a bit soggy on the walks between holes.

To be fair, I would have gone for the free option as well, why wouldn't you.

 

[Canfordhacker]

I use the Dark Sky app which I find really good. They also have a website (www.darksky.net). Defo gonna check out the raintoday one too though - cheers!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Met check does for me and the rain map is a good bench mark if not entirely accurate in terms of timings

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Getting it right 10% of the time would be a start....

Having worked alongside them a number of times at airfields they certainly get it right a good deal amount of time.

 

[rudebhoy]

turned out our place was only closed until 3.30, not all day as originally announced. mate texted me with the news, so dumped the DIY, and headed up there to meet him.

Forecast was showers and thunderstorms, we got lovely sunshine for the entire round!

 

[Roops]

if youre looking on the day look at raintoday.co.uk and look at the predictive rainfall radar, will give you a far clearer idea of whether its going to be a complete washout or hit and miss whether smaller showers hit

This. Use an App with a radar feed that actually shows the weather that's actually happening/going to happen, rather than someones guess a day prior. We recently sat in our cars in Wales in a thunderstorm waiting to tee off. The forecast was for storms all afternoon. I checked the radar and reckoned that after an hour we would be good to go. Forecast was still for storms, radar said that they were done for the day. We tee'd off and had a fantastic afternoon. Radar apps are the way forward for accurate forecasting.

 

[Fish]

There a pain in the backside, all of them.

Yesterday's forecast for where I have a large job on that I need to finish had close on 4hrs of rain forecast from 1pm through to 5pm, checked it at 9pm the night before and 6am that morning and still it was on Met Office, BBC, Accu and more...guess what, at 10am that day when I had obviously reassigned the labour elsewhere, it all disappeared from all the sites and never spilled a drop all day!!

Tomorrow in the same area was as of last night totally clear of rain along with Friday so I told the customer we'd be there first thing and bash the job out, now its showing like armageddon! How could they not see this coming?

 

[Imurg]

AccuWeather right now where I am in Northumberland.
Current - a light cloud with a bit of sun behind
Now cast - a break in the rain in 18 minutes.
So what is it? Raining or not?

Actually there's hardly a cloud in the sky at the moment.

Talk about hedging your bets

 

[Deleted member 15344]

AccuWeather right now where I am in Northumberland.
Current - a light cloud with a bit of sun behind
Now cast - a break in the rain in 18 minutes.
So what is it? Raining or not?

Actually there's hardly a cloud in the sky at the moment.

Talk about hedging your bets

Do you really expect someone to be able to predict the weather with 100% accuracy?

It's impossible - simple as that

 

[Imurg]

They've said it's either raining or it's not......
They've spent millions on forecasting and modelling programs, satellites etc....
If the best they can come up with is " it's either raining or it's not" then what are they doing?
To have an App saying two different things at the same time is laughable....
If they can't forecast with some degree of accuracy then why bother?
100% accuracy is impossible. But even I can give a "it's rainy or it isn't" forecast
What's next?
It's snowing or it isn't?

 

[Deleted member 15344]

They've said it's either raining or it's not......
They've spent millions on forecasting and modelling programs, satellites etc....
If the best they can come up with is " it's either raining or it's not" then what are they doing?
To have an App saying two different things at the same time is laughable....
If they can't forecast with some degree of accuracy then why bother?
100% accuracy is impossible. But even I can give a "it's rainy or it isn't" forecast
What's next?
It's snowing or it isn't?

We live on an island with some of the most changing weather systems on the planet surrounded by ever changing wind systems and tide systems - even with the best satellite systems that money can buy they will never ever be able to predict what will happen 100% - but they still try to do it free of charge to me and you. Whilst working on the airfield radar systems alongside the met office it's a hell of a job and one I know they get right more often than not - if you don't trust what they predict then ignore it - you aren't forced to accept public information free of charge.

Reading what you first post seems clear - sunny showers with a bit of cloud cover and they expect that to move away - and if the cloud doesn't produce rain then there is no big deal.

All the main companies use differing satellite images that will produce small variation in results - some companies like Accuweather use combination results from various satellites , Met Office use one set , The Weather Channel use another set based. All free to us all to try and help us out in our daily way of life

 

[Imurg]

100% accuracy isn't possible - I've said that..
The App saying two different things at the same time is the issue.
Telling me it's raining in one part of the app but telling me it's sunny in another is ludicrous.
It's like, in a world of red and blue cars, that the next car to come along will be red or blue..
It's not forecasting.
And when they change the "forecasts" every few minutes, it smarts of guesswork, someone looking out of the window, seeing it's raining and updating the app to show it's raining...
They're next to useless.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

100% accuracy isn't possible - I've said that..
The App saying two different things at the same time is the issue.
Telling me it's raining in one part of the app but telling me it's sunny in another is ludicrous.
It's like, in a world of red and blue cars, that the next car to come along will be red or blue..
It's not forecasting.
And when they change the "forecasts" every few minutes, it smarts of guesswork, someone looking out of the window, seeing it's raining and updating the app to show it's raining...
They're next to useless.

They are not next to useless that's clearly false - I have no idea what your app is saying two different things at once , I dont know how that's possible as I don't use Accuweather.

I do know that forecasters are sitting there 24 hours a day looking at satellite maps from countrywide right down to locally and yes they will change the forecast constantly depending on what they say and would you imagine that it's because the weather is changing constantly- especially more so when it's cloud cover because it's impossible to say exactly what that cloud will do in terms of movement , size , level of precipitation, speed - and a lot of it determined by the wind which also changes constantly

Like I said they are not next to useless and they are not just sticking their heads out of the window - but if you don't want to trust what they try to bring us then don't but it's not fair on people who are working bloody hard to bring a free public service to call them next to useless because of something as unpredictable as the weather - even more so on an island with such varying patterns

 

[Orikoru]

We live on an island with some of the most changing weather systems on the planet surrounded by ever changing wind systems and tide systems - even with the best satellite systems that money can buy they will never ever be able to predict what will happen 100% - but they still try to do it free of charge to me and you. Whilst working on the airfield radar systems alongside the met office it's a hell of a job and one I know they get right more often than not - if you don't trust what they predict then ignore it - you aren't forced to accept public information free of charge.

Reading what you first post seems clear - sunny showers with a bit of cloud cover and they expect that to move away - and if the cloud doesn't produce rain then there is no big deal.

All the main companies use differing satellite images that will produce small variation in results - some companies like Accuweather use combination results from various satellites , Met Office use one set , The Weather Channel use another set based. All free to us all to try and help us out in our daily way of life

I understand what you're saying but when they can't even narrow it down to 'raining' or 'not raining' then they might as well not bother even trying anymore.

 

[Imurg]

BBC app says light fluffy cloud with a sun behind it - it's howling down...

Would you accept that level of forecasting in another area of volatility - like the stock market?

 

[Deleted member 15344]

BBC app says light fluffy cloud with a sun behind it - it's howling down...

Would you accept that level of forecasting in another area of volatility - like the stock market?

Why read it then when you don't trust it ?

It's the weather for goodness sake - it can't be trusted on its own regardless of any forecast.

It's not the stock market it's the weather - an unpredictable force of nature that can change in minutes

Right now the weather for where I am says cloudy with a 30% chance of rain but high winds gusting - outside it is exactly that , cloudy and windy and had the odd spot of rain drop earlier. Yesterday we played golf and when the rain came it happened exactly when the met office said bar 15 mins earlier. Maybe you are just really unlucky but it always seems pretty good to me and if the airports and the military use it then I reckon they can trust the met office.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Let's get one thing straight, The Met Office is NOT free.

They are part of a government department that are tax payer funded, funded to the tune of over £80million a year and it's only a few years since WE bought them a new computer costing over £30million.

Nobody believes you can predict 100% correct, but we should be able to have some trust/faith in it, first question they shoukd ask themselves is why people are using anything but them in the UK.

 

[chellie]

I use wunderground. Most reliable I've found.

 

[garyinderry]

It rains at our golf course all the time and there won't be a drop at my house which is less than 10 minutes away.

The rain comes in from the west, usually hugging the mountain behind the course.

Cloud size can vary hugely. Sometimes they are that small the dont reach the course from the mountian, say a mile wide. Other times they cover the whole of Ireland for a week. Lol

 

[Imurg]

Why read it then when you don't trust it ? .

Because the plans we had for today are on hold because it's howling down when the apps said it wouldn't rain until much later in the day - that's why!