Sunday, September 16, 2012

So can anglers now trust the weather forecasts..?


This was the scene back in February, when show covered the Fens and the River Ouse froze from bank to bank. The cold snap only lasted a few days - unlike a couple of years earlier, when the freeze-up lasted for weeks.

After that winter - which came after forecasters said it was going to be a mild one - the Met Office stopped issuing long-range forecasts. Now it says new technology means it can make more accurate predictions.

Wouldn't it be great if you could actually trust the forecasts more than a day or two in advance..? This summer's widely-touted drought, which had the water companies imposing hosepipe bans, turned out to be a damp squib. Damp being the operative word.

Perhaps the real story when it comes to winter is just how briefly it's lasted if you average things out over the last decade or so. And just how volatile our weather's become in that time.

Yesterday, it was slightly warmer than the average for this time of year. Yet in the Fens, it was 16C - not the 20C predicted as the maximum temperature on local radio. Once the brief cold snap ended, it was warmer than that in February in the badlands.

Go figure.

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