Reading (Reading) weather - Met Office (2024)

FAQs

How accurate is Met Office weather? ›

Short range weather forecasts cover periods from just a few hours ahead (from the nowcasting time-scale) up to about three days ahead. Short-range forecasts provided by the Met Office are extremely accurate and are updated several times a day.

We used to use thermometers that had mercury in them, but all of these are no longer used as mercury is dangerous if it were to leak out or the thermometer was to break. Instead we now use digital thermometers or alcohol thermometers. To measure the temperature accurately we keep our thermometer a Stevenson screens.

The arrow shows the direction that the wind is blowing, and the letter represents the direction the wind is blowing from (on a standard 16-point compass rose). For example, an arrow pointing upwards indicates a wind blowing from the south to the north, along with the letter S to indicate that it is a southerly wind.

Northerly winds tend to bring relatively cold air from polar regions to the British Isles.

In a composite measure of accuracy, the Weather Channel and Weather Underground came top, AccuWeather fifth, MeteoGroup (the BBC's new provider) sixth and the BBC ninth (based on Met Office forecasts).

AccuWeather gathers the best and most comprehensive weather data to deliver forecasts with Superior Accuracy. Forecasts are pinpointed for every location on Earth and extend further ahead than any other source.

We provide forecasts from a few hours ahead to projections more than a century into the future. The timescale of each forecast greatly determines the level of detail we can give.

1. that 50 percent of the area will get wet. 2. or that it will rain 50 percent of the time. A 50 percent chance of rain means there is a 50 percent chance for any one spot in the forecast area to get wet during the forecast period.

If we're 100% certain that rain will develop in the Piedmont Triad but it's only expected to cover 30% of the forecast area, then the forecast would read “a 30% chance of rain.” This is because our confidence is 100% and it's multiplied by coverage in decimal form, 0.30, which equals 30%.

Let's look at an example of what the probability does mean. If a forecast for a given county says that there is a 40% chance of rain this afternoon, then there is a 40% chance of rain at any point in the county from noon to 6 p.m. local time.

What does FF stand for in weather? ›

Flood occurrence has always been one of the most important natural phenomena, which is often associated with disaster. Consequently, flood forecasting (FF) and flood warning (FW) systems, as the most efficient non-structural measures in reducing flood loss and damage, are of prime importance.

RA=Rain. SA=Sand. SH=Showers SG=Snow grains SN=Snow.

- in winter, the sea insulates the islands as it cools more slowly than the land and this helps to keep the UK warmer than most other countries of the same latitude. Coastal areas are warmer than inland areas in winter, because the sea retains heat and warms up the land.

The current weather in the UK can be attributed to a strong jet stream in the Atlantic, which is contributing to the changeable nature of the weather from late June into early July.

Recently, the jet stream has looped south of the UK, exposing the country to cooler northern air. “The jet stream has set up this pressure pattern that allows the winds at the surface to come down from the north and bring us the Arctic air,” says Alex Deakin, a meteorologist at the Met Office.

The Met Office weather app is the winner of two awards in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) International Weather App Awards 2020 for specialised app / weather warnings and for our public weather forecasts, including usefulness, reliability, quantity and quality of information.

The Short Answer:

A seven-day forecast can accurately predict the weather about 80 percent of the time and a five-day forecast can accurately predict the weather approximately 90 percent of the time. However, a 10-day—or longer—forecast is only right about half the time.

forecasters or by modestsized computers, so it is possible to update the forecasts frequently – every time there are new observations available. Most Met Office nowcasts are updated every hour.