Met Office

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Met Office
Current logo, as of 2000
Current logo, as of 2000
Agency overview
Formed 1854
Jurisdiction United Kingdom
Headquarters Exeter
Agency Executive John Hirst
Website
www.metoffice.gov.uk

Coordinates: 50°43′39″N, 03°28′31″W The Met Office (originally an abbreviation for Meteorological Office, but now the official name in itself), which has its headquarters at Exeter in Devon, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. Part of the Met Office complex in Exeter is the Met Office College, which handles the training for internal personnel and many forecasters from around the world. The current chief executive is John Hirst who replaced Mark Hutchinson on 17 September 2007.

Contents

[edit] History

Established in 1854 as a small department within the Board of Trade under Robert FitzRoy as a service to mariners, the Met Office later became part of the Ministry of Defence. It currently holds a quasi-governmental role, being required to act commercially but also remaining an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence. A little known branch of the Met Office known as the Mobile Met Unit (MMU) accompany forward units in times of conflict advising the armed forces of the prevailing conditions for battle, particularly the RAF. The Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research is also part of the Met Office.

[edit] The Shipping Forecast

One of the British stalwarts — the Shipping Forecast — is produced by the Met Office and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The Shipping Forecast has long been of real interest to, and vital to the safety of, Mariners traversing the Sea Areas around the British Isles and its broadcast on radio is still avidly listened to. Less vitally, the Shipping Forecast has been the subject of both books and song lyrics.

[edit] Weather Forecasts and Warnings

At the Met Office, they have the responsibility to issue severe weather warnings for the United Kingdom through the National severe weather warning service (NSWWS). These are weather events that may affect transport infrastructure and even endanger people's lives. In March 2008, the system was improved and a new stage of warning was introduced, the 'Advisory'.[1]

They also produce forecast models by processing all the information from satellites in space and observations on earth, with the aid of supercomputers. If necessary, forecasters may then make adjustments to it. This main bulk of data is then passed on to companies who acquire it. In perticular, two of the main media companies, the BBC and ITV produce forecasts using the Met Office's data. At the BBC Weather Centre, they are continuously updated on the latest information arriving by computer, or perhaps by fax and e-mail, which is noticed in their updated broadcasts.[2][3] The BBC's new graphics is also used on all of their television weather broadcasts, meanwhile ITV still use weather symbols. This is mainly how the public are informed of weather events which may affect day-to-day life.

[edit] Met Office locations

The new building on the edge of Exeter
The new building on the edge of Exeter

In 2003 the Met Office moved its headquarters to Exeter, in Devon from its previous location of Bracknell in Berkshire and it has a worldwide presence — including a forecasting centre in Aberdeen and offices in Gibraltar and on the Falklands. Other outposts lodge in establishments such as the Joint Centre for Mesoscale Meteorology (JCMM) at University of Reading in Berkshire, the Joint Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Research (JCHMR) site at Wallingford in Oxfordshire and there is also a Met Office presence at many Army and Air Force bases within the UK and abroad. Royal Navy weather forecasts are generally provided by naval officers, not Met Office personnel.

[edit] World Area Forecast Centre

The Met Office is also one of only two World Area Forecast Centres or WAFCs, and is referred to as WAFC London. The other WAFC is located in Missouri, USA but known as WAFC Washington. WAFC data are used daily to safely and economically route aircraft, particularly on long-haul journeys. The data provide details of wind speed and direction, air temperature, cloud type and tops, and other features of interest to the aviation community, such as volcanic ash eruptions.

[edit] Air quality forecasts

The Met Office issues air quality forecasts made using NAME, the Met Office's medium-to-long-range atmospheric dispersion model. It was originally developed as a nuclear accident model following the Chernobyl accident in 1986, but has since evolved into an all-purpose dispersion model capable of predicting the transport, transformation and deposition of a wide class of airborne materials. NAME is used operationally by the Met Office as an emergency response model as well as for routine air quality forecasting.

In the air quality forecasts, the level of pollution is described either as an index (ranging from 1 to 10) or as a banding (low, moderate, high or very high). These levels are based on the health effects of each pollutant as shown just below.

Index Banding Health Effect
1–3
 		 Low
 		 Effects are unlikely to be noticed even by individuals who know they are sensitive to air pollutants.
4–6
 		 Moderate
 		 Mild effects, unlikely to require action, may be noticed amongst sensitive individuals.
7-9


 		 High


 		 Significant effects may be noticed by sensitive individuals and action to avoid or reduce these effects may be needed (e.g. reducing exposure by spending less time in polluted areas outdoors). Asthmatics will find that their 'reliever' inhaler is likely to reverse the effects on the lung.
10
 		 Very High The effects on sensitive individuals described for 'High' levels of pollution may worsen.

The forecast is produced for a number of different pollutants and their typical health effects are shown in the following table.

Pollutant Health Effects at High Level
Nitrogen dioxide
Ozone
Sulphur dioxide		 These gases irritate the airways of the lungs, increasing the symptoms
of those suffering from lung diseases.
 
Particulates
 		 Fine particles can be carried deep into the lungs where they can cause
inflammation and a worsening of heart and lung diseases

[edit] High Performance Computing

Due to the large amount of computation needed for Numerical Weather Prediction the Met Office has had some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. In November 1997 the Met Office supercomputer was ranked third in the world. [4]. The top 500 is a list of the top 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world. As of March 2008 the current Met Office super computer is not placed with the top 500.

[edit] Weather stations

Reports (observations) from weather stations vary considerably. They can be automatic (totally machine produced), semi-automatic (part-machine and part manual), or manual. Some stations produce manual observations during business hours and revert to automatic observations outside these times. Many stations now also feature recent innovations such as "present weather" sensors, CCTV, etc.

Some stations have limited reporting times, while other report continuously. The "standard" is a once-hourly reporting schedule, but automatic stations can often be "polled" as required, while stations at airfields regularly report twice-hourly, with additional (often frequent in times of bad weather) special reports as necessary to inform airfield authorities of changes to the weather that may affect aviation operations.

Some stations report only CLIMAT data (e.g maximum and minimum temperatures, rainfall totals over a period, etc.) and these are usually recorded at 0900 and 2100 hours daily. Weather reports are often performed by Observers not specifically employed by the Met Office, e.g. Air traffic control staff, Coastguards, University staff, etc.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  • Penkridge weather station
  • Wye weather station
  • RAF Lossiemouth weather station
  • RAF Kinloss weather station
  • RAF Leuchars weather station
  • RAF Leeming weather station
  • RAF Cranwell weather station
  • RAF Waddington weather station
  • RAF Odiham weather station
  • RAF Brize Norton weather station
  • AAC Middle Wallop weather station

[edit] Notable former directors

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Met Office warning colours
  2. ^ BBC Weather - Producing Weather Broadcasts
  3. ^ How the weather is forecast: The Met Office
  4. ^ http://www.top500.org/site/history/1845

[edit] External links

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