New RTE weather presentation graphics

squarecircles

https://www.rte.ie/news/weather/2025/0714/1523368-rte-weather-upgrade/

RTE have revealed a new graphic presentation for their weather forecasts.

Fr Tod Umptious

The summer of 1985 was very wet, and it came after two very good summers in 1983 and 1984.

The reason given by some for the bad summer was the new satellite images they started using in the forecast on TV.

If we have a wet summer from now on we can blame these new graphics.

Gonzo

About time, the localization of towns is a much needed improvement and map image quality looks better. RTE's presentation was getting very outdated. I don't have RTE television service so will have to try and watch this online.

Gonzo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123632892#Comment_123632892

I still haven't recovered from the trauma when BBC ditched the old weather 1980s output with the classic weather symbols to the brown maps with SE England Enlarged and Scotland at a pinch to the north. The introduction of the new 'modern' system also ended BBC showing weather details over the Republic of Ireland on regular BBC Weather Forecasts.

Larbre34

Seems like they're making a big deal out of something that TV3 and TG4 have had in their capability for 15 or 20 years.

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123632937#Comment_123632937

Always worth remembering the BBC has no mandate making daily public tv forecasts for Ireland any more than they do the Netherlands. They are only coincidentally on the map.

They will only ever mention another jurisdiction if something extreme or unusual occurs which they do same as all broadcasters.

Mav11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123633064#Comment_123633064

Unlike the Netherlands, they do have a mandate for NI. Bit silly to stop the clouds or the rain at the border??

daheff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123632892#Comment_123632892

well yesterday was 30C. Today is 16C. I think your point has already been conclusively proven

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123633107#Comment_123633107

They don't "stop" the rain and clouds at the border? Last time I saw a BBC weather forecast a week a go anyhow.

Glaceon

I saw it on the 1 O'Clock news there. Reminded me of what TV3 were doing 20-25 years ago. Nothing spectacular but it's fine.

ClimateObserver

Just watched the 1.25pm broadcast on RTE1 there. A nice improvement, but still could be better.

The rainfall prediction is poor - too transparent to the point it's very hard to visualise anything remotely suggesting what will happen, still has that pulse effect from before and goes through the timescale too quickly.

I also don't like the way they leave the town names on while animations of the rainfall are happening. For example - Cashel is shown but it blocks out most of Southeast Tipp and southern Kilkenny so you don't get a sense of whether it'll be raining in these parts (or any other part of the country where town names are).

The temperature map is much better, though it seems to be in a flex scale - I'd prefer the scale used on XCWeather (a rip-off of the old BBC scale)

The provincial view is an interesting addition, but is it suffering from the same complaint the new BBC uses where the southern regions are stretched and northern regions of the provinces are squeezed. The whole country view is fine I think.

Overall, looks fresh - but I guess it'll take time to see how other weather setups are presented to get a full feel for it and evaluate it properly.

Thunder87

Just watched it as well and its definitely an improvement overall but yeah unfortunately the rain graphics still have that awful pulsing effect that makes it impossible to really see what's going on, it's a complete mess for showery days like today.

They're still flying through the graphics far too fast as well, each individual graphic is barely on the screen for 5 seconds before its on to the next. I always get the impression the primary aim is to get through the forecast as fast as possible rather than actually allowing people to take in the information

ClimateObserver

Agreed, all seems rushed. Probably down to RTE wanting to squeeze as much adverts time in after the forecast.

If that's the case then Met Éireann need to follow what UKMO do and have proper length broadcasts updated several times daily on their YouTube channel

Delta2113

I spotted the suburb Artane on the map - other than that nothing else to get excited about.

Why don't they say southside,northside, city centre give a high and low for next few days. Just like before you get a few maps for next few days and your looking for - is it cloudy or rain for Dublin - do they give a temperature or not give a temperature.

It's certainly not earth shattering the way the guy on the radio this morning was making out.

Buffman

Saw both lunchtime and six-one there, first impression is they paid almost €250k to get what TV3 had years ago.

Seemed rushed and random small towns are a bit distracting, Carrick Co. Donegal was on six-one when Donegal town would seem much more logical.

Also, for the 'big picture weather' they have it too centred in the mid-Atlantic with Europe way over on the right, Gerry was pointing in the ocean as he couldn't reach Ireland until they zoomed in.

Hopefully just first day teething problems and I won't have to rewind to watch it twice to get a jist of the weather going forward.

rovers_runner

Forecast is generally in the low 2 minute region.

An extra minute afforded to them would make a huge difference, no point having updated models with no time to walk through them in detail.

Storm 10

Going from County to County showing showers or rain it's too quick they are flying past hard to make them out.

Comhrá

I thought the whole graphics thing a bit distracting and somewhat overdone. The predictive rainfall sequence is very busy and a bit confusing.

Also, those town name titles with the white rectangular background look a bit too prominent and I thought they detracted from the map view.

Hopefully it will all be fine-tuned a little in time. The initial presentation was a bit rushed and I found it an effort to keep up with all the moving

parts. A bit like trying to watch fast-moving credits after a movie.

RoTelly

It's catching up with TG4. @Comhrá you won't like Aimsir TG4 they have fog and mist and wind :) moving graphic every 10 seconds. Far smoother than RTÉ weather.

beggars_bush

If I was an elderly person watching that forecast I would find it very rushed

All the graphics move on too quickly, especially the look ahead for the week and poor aul Connacht got less time than the other provinces

Trying to do too much in a short space of time

Hailtothethief

Just saw it there. It's a massive step backwards. On the North Atlantic chart, there no front marked which makes it harder to figure out what's going on. One glance at a chart with isobars and fronts marked and I could see what's going to happen.

There's no European overview as it's nice to see what's happening in Europe and especially for people about to go on holidays.

The final screen with the three day forecast is far too busy. The icons are hard to see.

Overall, a step backwards. Less information and what info is there is hard to read.

Edit. What was with that rust colour used for Ireland? No other forecast I can recall uses rust colour, unless it's 40C plus!

pad199207

I liked the radar run but other than that it’s not for me at all.

squonk

As a partially sighted viewer the new setup is a disaster. The temperature values are all when too small. There’s just way too much needless detail with all those towns. We all know our relative location in the country so there’s no need for this. I found some of the transitions moved way too quickly. I know the old system was a bit stuck in the 90s but you couldn’t argue about clarity. There is no need for the font size to be quite as small as it is. one of these cases where modern is all that’s thought about but people forget about the fundamentals.

Comhrá

Just watched the 9.30pm forecast and I thought Gerry really gave a very good presentation, getting through a lot without missing a beat. He really is a first-class presenter.

I liked the Atlantic chart and the real-time radar, but those temperature colours on the Ireland map really need toning down a bit.

The town names look distracting and some strange choices, for eg. Castletroy is a suburb of Limerick and Cahir isn't really the biggest town in

Tipp so not sure how they were chosen. Maybe a bit too much information crammed into a too-short slot.

Gonzo

Finally got a chance to watch the new format and I'm really not a fan of it. It's far too rushed, the rain affect looks muddy/messy and genuinely difficult to follow it moves so quickly. The icons are not great, infact a step backwards, The temperature Icons are far too orange at relatively low temperatures like the teens etc. The temperature Icons also looks like something copied from an Adobe Creative Cloud template and don't fit in with the rest of the style. The final screen with the 3 day forecast also looks kinda weird a bit too busy and poor contrast between the weather symbols and the background texture of Ireland. They definitely need to tweak this and give the forecast an extra minute at least.

squonk

Honestly if we were all complaining about how they blatantly ripped off the look and feel of the BBC Weather graphics, I’d be much happier! Far higher standard imho.

Kermit.de.frog

Too rushed. They need to add a minute or 2 to the forecast.

https://youtu.be/vDOOb96MDvw?si=GpxqLJAbeEmzZHRH

NIMAN

Just seen it for the 1st time with Gerry Murphy.

Its nothing special. It looks like a mix of TG4 and the BBCs.

As others said, other channels were doing it 10 years ago.

Not sure if it was 240k well spent, but sure its Rte, they're loaded.

Robwindstorm

Well Gerry is still giving rain so nothing has changed there. The temperature graphics would want to be toned down a bit as it looked like Ireland was a desert. Rainfall radar intensity is a bit severe on colour to. As everyone has mentioned, the presenter could do with an extra minute.

I wonder what the strong wind graphics look like? Will hardly be A big grey cloud with puffed up cheeks and swirls coming out of his mouth.

Esel

I see they have cut the forecast graphic at the end of the reports to 3 days from 5 days previously. Why, I wonder?

Jpmarn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123635058#Comment_123635058

I think it would be nice to see your own village or locality show up occasionally.