MetOffice wrong yet again

[-:Undertaker:-]

Let me seize this brief gap in the aerial bombardment to pose a question that is bugging me. Why did the Met Office forecast a "mild winter"?

Well, folks, it's tea-time on Sunday and for anyone involved in keeping people moving it has been a hell of a weekend. Thousands have had their journeys wrecked, tens of thousands have been delayed getting away for Christmas; and for those Londoners who feel aggrieved by the performance of any part of our transport services, I can only say that we are doing our level best.

Almost the entire Tube system was running yesterday and we would have done even better if it had not been for a suicide on the Northern Line, and the temporary stoppage that these tragedies entail. Of London's 700 bus services, only 50 were on diversion, mainly in the hillier areas. On Saturday, we managed to keep the West End plentifully supplied with customers, and retailers reported excellent takings on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

We have kept the Transport for London road network open throughout all this. We have about 90,000 tons of grit in stock, and the gritters were out all night to deal with this morning's rush. And yet we have to face the reality of the position across the country.

It is no use my saying that London Underground and bus networks are performing relatively well – touch wood – when Heathrow, our major international airport, is still effectively closed two days after the last heavy snowfall; when substantial parts of our national rail network are still struggling; when there are abandoned cars to be seen on hard shoulders all over the country; and when yet more snow is expected today, especially in the north.

In a few brief hours, we are told, the snowy superfortresses will be above us again, bomb bays bulging with blizzard. It may be that in the next hours and days we have to step up our de-icing, our gritting and our shovelling. So let me seize this brief gap in the aerial bombardment to pose a question that is bugging me. Why did the Met Office forecast a "mild winter"?

Do you remember? They said it would be mild and damp, and between one degree and one and a half degrees warmer than average. Well, I am now 46 and that means I have seen more winters than most people on this planet, and I can tell you that this one is a corker.

Never mind the record low attained in Northern Ireland this weekend. I can't remember a time when so much snow has lain so thickly on the ground, and we haven't even reached Christmas. And this is the third tough winter in a row. Is it really true that no one saw this coming?

Actually, they did. Allow me to introduce readers to Piers Corbyn, meteorologist and brother of my old chum, bearded leftie MP Jeremy. Piers Corbyn works in an undistinguished office in Borough High Street. He has no telescope or supercomputer. Armed only with a laptop, huge quantities of publicly available data and a first-class degree in astrophysics, he gets it right again and again.

Back in November, when the Met Office was still doing its "mild winter" schtick, Corbyn said it would be the coldest for 100 years. Indeed, it was back in May that he first predicted a snowy December, and he put his own money on a white Christmas about a month before the Met Office made any such forecast. He said that the Met Office would be wrong about last year's mythical "barbecue summer", and he was vindicated. He was closer to the truth about last winter, too.

Barbecue summer, mild winter.. children will never see snow again - time after time again they've been wrong, what else? melting ice caps, dying polar bears, rising temperatures - all false and all made up and exposed during the Climategate scandal. Piers Corbyn even bets on his own predictions and gets them right, something which if the the MetOffice and governments around the world did - we'd be bankrupt (not that we aren't anyway thanks to their gross incompetance).

Lord Monckton who is also an expert in this field won the Oxford debate on the topic, Al Gore's film (many of you may have been shown it in school being presented as a truth) has been proved to be factually incorrect.. I think we've heard enough to declare this religion dead and buried.

Can we have our green taxes/regulations removed now we ask? not a cat in hells chance is the reply!

Thoughts?

[Technologic]

They make a few **** ups like any other agency and youre up in arms, most of the time theyre right.

Also Climate Change is happening, deal with it

[Suspective]

I agree with Undertaker here. The Met Office, are one of the worst 'weather forecasting companies' when it comes to predicting Weather Forecasts. I remember reading elsewhere that the BBC or ITV (might of even been both of them) were considering changing who they got their weather input from due to the fact the Met Office were extremely unreliable. I always think twice, when I look up the weather on a Met Office sourced website e.g. BBC.

There is private companies, who could do a much better and more acurate job.

[-:Undertaker:-]

They make a few **** ups like any other agency and youre up in arms, most of the time theyre right.

Also Climate Change is happening, deal with it

Temperatures have been proven to be in decline and have been for the past decade or so, with the scientists and experts who support this even admitting so (in private) during the Climategate scandal where one even said in a leaked email "we can't account for the lack of warming". The IPCC has also been wrong as it would be, as it was setup in the first place to deliver the outcome that governments wanted it to deliever.

UN - wrong.
EU - wrong.
Government - wrong.
Al Gore - wrong.
IPCC - wrong.
MetOffice - wrong.

Almost everything they predict or say is going to happen turns out to be false, why would anybody believe a word they say anymore? unless of course, you are part of a cult similar to the one which sprung up in the 1980s which stated that another Ice Age was on its way and guess what? turned out to be complete nonsense. The people legislating on the issue also have no concept of reality as Bloom points out;

[Technologic]

Even if temperatures are dropping the climate is still changing at an alarming rate, global warming does not equal climate change.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Even if temperatures are dropping the climate is still changing at an alarming rate, global warming does not equal climate change.

You mean just like the changes (that were much larger) during the Medieval warming period when there were no cars, no factories and generally no industrialisation and a far smaller population on the Earth? As Corbyn says (before you point to C02 levels), warmer tempertures cause C02 increases and not the other way around as we've been led to believe - think about it, more sun = more plant growth and thus you get more C02 produced.

The climate has changed, is changing and will always change long after we're dead and buried.

[GommeInc]

I just see them there as a place to predict, not to be seen as a source for solid, hard facts. Climate Change is a natural occurence in the Earth's lifespan. You come out of an Ice Age (Ice being a clue, it's cold - brrr, blimey!) and when you come out of something you tend to move away from it, thus warmth. I'm not going to scream, rant and rave about my selfish spcies fear of existence for something that is going to happen anyway, and will never be slowed down. The only good thing about these fears is that we use a lot less resources through new technologies and it makes us more self aware, but I'm not going to assume it will do anything to save this planet.

[Ajthedragon]

I think Climate change is happening, and we do need to be green, maybe not to save the planet but to save natural resources.

[Mathew]

I don't have anything to add to the thread, but I don't believe in man-made Global Warming; and I do thank you for showing me this video. Very interesting

[AgnesIO]

Could I point out Mr. Undertaker, that you are probably not in the strong position to fight over climate change, considering you talk about "C02". Are you aware Carbon Dioxide contains one Carbon and two Oxygen (eg. It is CO2)

The Met Office are not that bad at weather things, and to be honest I believe Climate Change IS happening. Global Warming on the other hand..