Over dramatic weather forecasting.

Our area was meant to have snow. Had some but quickly melted. Been very frosty till today and yes I do think it is over dramatic to have all these warnings. Just tell us the forecast and we can decide ourselves. DB had to drive from Northumberland to Edinburgh last Thursday for meeting about DM and managed fine then he drove back and was fine then he drove to Cambridge on Friday and was fine then back to Northumberland. If he had taken heed of the forecasts we would have had to cancel the meeting.

I have noticed over the years that the forecasters are throwing new terms about. What we used to call a 'Pineapple Express' (warm wind and rain originating from mid-Pacific) is now called an Atmospheric River), we now have 'heat domes' in summer, etc.

I know for North America, there have been some hurricanes that wreaked havoc that was much worse than forecast, so I think they tend to overstate the potential damages.

Strangely enough, I find it more difficult to find wind info included in the forecasts. Weather forecasting is an interesting science, and I wish I was presented with this info when I was in school.

The same thing applies here in Australia.

Back in 1999 we had an unreported storm in Sydney which caused absolute mayhem. Cars floating away in the Eastern Suburbs, roof's wrecked which resulted in houses flooding and people totally caught unaware as they drove to collect their children from school.

Since then the weather forecast always err on the wild side.
I think it was due to the unprecedented damage and subsequent insurance claims which were astronomical.

Now I take it all with a grain of salt, I've learned to read the weather maps and always refer to the local radar to see what's ahead. Technology has been really helpful in this regard.

The online radar sites operate in real time so I suggest people become acquainted with their local radar maps. I particularly refer to them if I'm planning on doing a load of washing lol!!!

My geography teacher at secondary school said, "Britain doesn't have climate; it has weather". It's a smallish island and weather systems can bypass, change completely or affect only one part of the threatened land mass. Overall, it may well be correct for the larger land mass, not just not a particular area. It is the same where I live in New Zealand. I live in a small town at the top of the South Island. We are surrounded by hills so we often have our own microclimate. It can be absolutely tanking down a few kilometres away and we are sitting outside in bright sunshine. We do get snow but only on the higher hills, but that causes the quite fierce winter winds to be extremely cold. (Plenty of snowfields in the lower south of the island)