Welcome

The team wish all our members a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.  As has become tradition for the yuletide season our site has become very topical and light-hearted, with just the one more serious piece on the government decision to release raw weather data.  New for 2012 will be a series on weather lore and legend, along with further details about our forthcoming reunion and the plaque we will be placing on the FAA memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum.

Viewing the web site

One of our senior members recently reported problems viewing the web site. The Right Hand Column was not showing up on his web browser. If you are experiencing the same problem then please let us know. In the meantime you will notice that three of the “Hot Links are displayed at the top of every web page to assist anyone experiencing problems.

***Reunion 2012***

Date for your diary; the reunion will take place at the University of Nottingham from 7-9 September 2012.  Further details and cost are still being finalised and will be out within the next week or so.  It is hoped to incorporate our plaque dedication ceremony at the NMA this same weekend.  Again further details will be promulgated as soon as they are available.

Professional or Amateur Weather Forecasters?

At the end of November a report appeared on the front page of the Daily Telegraph outlining government plans to be released imminently giving the Met Office no option but to make available to others their raw data.  The excuse being that after the Office’s less than accurate forecasts of a mild winter last year, with a “barbecue summer” to follow failed to materialise, others should be able to try their hand at forecasting for themselves.  The release of this data means that companies will be able to provide their own forecasts and that untrained amateurs will be able to monitor the weather as well.  It is purported that this will improve the accuracy of forecasts and allow for individuals to forward plan for different types of weather.

It appears that this release of high quality data is the largest volume made available by any national met organisation anywhere in the world.  The Met Office has already been pilloried for failing to predict last year’s exceptionally cold winter, closely followed by the prediction that there would be rainstorms for the Royal Wedding.  It implies that the general public are unable to interpret and adapt to the weather situation as it appears at the time.  Weather is not the only target in this new initiative; transport and health areas are also to be required to release data, with health in particular, giving rise to privacy concerns.

The suggestion is that professional weathermen have an inability to produce an accurate forecast and that the time has come for amateurs to “have a go”.  Is this an open invitation to “cowboy weather forecaster” to set up in competition against a very long-standing national organisation and various independent commercial weather companies, many of whom employ, or were even set up by, some of our own members when they had finished their time as Royal Navy forecaster or met observers?  If any of our members have further comment or suggestions, a thread has been established of the Forum for your comments.

***Downloads January 2012***

To start the new year we have a brand new series entitled Met Memories available in both Power Point and Pdf formats. This series will continue throughout 2012. Look out for another new series starting February where we will be showing the Officers Course photographs in a six part series. Also available this month is a TWMPP featuring John (Bungy) Williams.

The two new series plus the occasional special production along with the last of the TWMPP series (Colin Brenchley) will form the mainstay of downloads for 2012. Over the next month or so we intend to retire, or move to the relevant web page, all the existing downloads files that graced the download page in 201

PHOTO ALBUMS

Pictured above is a photo of Cirrus at the Lizard lighthouse – May 2011. There are further photographs in the Album section of the Web Site.

If any other cloudobservers get together and hold a mini re-union, don’t forget, take a picture and forward it to me here for inclusion on the site. Click HERE – select Webmaster