63
Ronalds’ barograph was utilised by the UK Meteorological Office for many years to assist in weather forecasting, with machines being supplied to numerous observatories around the world. Today, from within that amazing structure,
The Met Office makes meteorological predictions across all timescales from weather forecasts to climate change and is one of only two World Area Forecast Centres (WAFCs), referred to as WAFC London (the other located in Kansas City, Missouri, is known as WAFC Washington). WAFC data is used daily to safely and economically route aircraft, particularly on long-haul journeys providing details of wind speed and direction, air temperature, cloud type and tops, and other features. The aviation industry as we know it simply could not function without that critical data. But that isn’t the only place where you will find some of the 2,000 Met Office staff … it has a worldwide presence including a forecasting centre in Aberdeen; offices in Gibraltar and on the Falklands; together with outposts in other establishments such as the MetOffice@Reading (formerly the Joint Centre for Mesoscale Meteorology) at University of Reading and the Joint Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Research site at Wallingford. Following the First World War, the Met Office became part of the Air Ministry in 1919, the weather observed from the top of Adastral House (where the Air Ministry was based) giving rise to the phrase “The weather on the Air Ministry roof”…. As a result of the need for weather information for aviation, the Met Office located many of its observation and data collection points on RAF airfields, and this accounts for the large number of military airfields mentioned in weather reports even today and although no longer part of the Ministry of Defence, the Met Office maintains strong links with the military through its front line offices at RAF and Army bases, both in the UK and overseas. It is also involved in the Joint Operations Meteorology and Oceanography Centre with the Royal Navy although Royal Navy weather forecasts are generally provided by naval officers, not Met Office personnel. The Mobile Met Unit consists of Met
Office staff who are also RAF reservists who accompany forward units in times of conflict advising the armed forces, particularly the RAF, of the conditions for battle and some would
claim the Met Office’s finest hour was when the D-Day Landings were delayed by one day based on their weather forecasting, despite US Armed Forces forecasters’ contradictory advice. Fortunately the Met Office prevailed and the rest, as they say, is history. However, the main role of the Met Office is to produce forecast models by gathering information from weather satellites in space and observations on earth, then processing it with a variety of models, based on a software package known as the Unified Model. In the UK, we are most familiar with 36, 48 and 144 hour weather forecasts, alongside shipping forecasts; severe weather warnings; seasonal forecasts; flood warnings; air quality, pollutants and particulates advice; volcanic ash recordings, climate change studies …. and so much more. All gathered, monitored, calculated, predicted, analysed and provided from within the Met Office. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the scope and scale of their services; suffice it to say, their data, and the expertise with which it is interpreted, protects and saves countless lives on a daily basis, not just in the UK but globally. But, they do not do it by man alone … due to the large
“It is almost impossible to exaggerate the scope and scale of their services”
amount of computation needed for what they do, for many years now the Met Office has run some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. The current models, which are the most powerful weather forecasting computers in the world – Cray XC40s with a processing power of 16 petaflops - have been operational since 2015 and are shortly to be replaced with even more advanced versions at a cost of £950M. And if you read the previous paragraph carefully,
you will have realised there isn’t just one of them! In the event of problems with the main model, there is a second backup supercomputer on site
which can seamlessly ‘take over’ and should the site suffer a catastrophic incident, there are contingency plans in place to make sure their critical services continue to be produced. It would be unthinkable for the Met Office to ‘stop working’!
If you want to know about the Met Office, you can enjoy a fascinating free guided tour, including access to the National Meteorological Library and Archive on one of their periodic Open Days. Understandably these have ceased for now but check out their website for details and future dates : www.
metoffice.gov.uk I guarantee you will come away with a much deeper understanding and respect for the Met Office and you’ll think twice before blaming them again for the weather!•
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
