All Things Met Eireann Related Go in Here (MOD NOTE #1)

Reckless Abandonment · 15-02-2014 10:03pm

ME get it right most of the time MT gets it right most of the time. The difference is ME get million to get it right most of the time....

Villain · 15-02-2014 10:26pm

Their TV forecast on Monday evening showed a graphic with "Violent Storm Force11" to our South, their text forecast online stated:

“Extremely windy or possibly storm conditions are likely on Wednesday, with heavy rain or sleet, and some local flooding.
Some structural damage is also possible. The exact track of the approaching low pressure is still not certain, so keep in tune with updates. ”

They issued a red Warning for Cork and Munster with gusts up to 160km/h late Tuesday night with Orange and up to 130km/h in Wexford, Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick and Waterford. A yellow warning for other areas and up to 110km/h.

Reviewing those forecasts with hindsight shows that no-where inland recorded a gust in excess of 160km/h but imo they could have done 3 things a little better:

1. Issued Red warning earlier and included Limerick.

2. Included Carlow and Kilkenny in Orange Alert

3. Used Social Media more to issue warnings and issue updates via social media once the scale and intensity of the system was becoming clear.

All in all I have huge respect for Met Eireann and I have defended this week as I know how difficult it can be to forecast systems when nothing depends on it only my reputation for a few thousand people on Facebook and twitter. Yet they are forecasting for the entire population and businesses and government agencies decisions hang on those forecast.

200motels · 15-02-2014 11:02pm

John.Icy wrote: »

Can people finally just do some god damn research before I see another post like this.

Wednesdays storm appeared last week, and it chopped and changed tonnes. At one point didn't ECM or GFS drop it totally? Like go look the GFS 12z from the 8th. Nothing out of the ordinary, a bit of wind, barely a yellow probably.

If ME went with the notion that they should stick with day old data and not update forecasts based on the latest model runs, well then people would still be sh*tting all over them.

People on here, including myself can look at the models and post run by run with updates and the main guys will update their opinion according to the data straight after. ME can't do that and can't afford to buy into something far in advance. People on here don't get mauled for making mistakes, ME do. Go back through some threads where MT hasn't been that accurate and see the response if someone called him on it, destroyed. I remember in my first weeks on here when I said I didn't need MT forecasts to know what was going on and people wanted me banned. Granted they should have just put out the red Tuesday to make people happy. They did however warn of high winds on Tuesday, up to 160km/h? Like, if people shook that off because it was an orange warning, well that's their own fault because that's just utterly moronic.

Not just directed at you anymore, just a general comment towards the amount of people commenting on how few people knew about this. People need to realise not everyone is like us. Not everyone likes checking the charts, watching the weather religiously. This isn't America or England where things can be hyped to biblical proportion for little reasons at times.

To finish, people can check the the ECM (one of ME's big boys) 0z 9th of February which is the Sunday. If you go look at that and still call ME out for what they said on Sunday and ignore the warning for winds Monday and Tuesday just because the lack of a RED warning, I dunno.

I think you over reacted just a tad as all I said was M.E got it wrong and they did but as it's forecasts they are bound to get it wrong now and again, it's like backing a horse, some you win and some you loose. We're not all stupid you know.

OldRio · 16-02-2014 1:00pm

200motels wrote: »

I think you over reacted just a tad as all I said was M.E got it wrong and they did but as it's forecasts they are bound to get it wrong now and again, it's like backing a horse, some you win and some you loose. We're not all stupid you know.

Weather forecasting heh
And I thought science might have had something to do with it.

Joe Public · 17-02-2014 3:29pm

It's difficult enough to get the forecasts correct without having to worry about PC

http://campus.ie/news/national-news/holy-war-as-complaints-flood-in-over-disaster-weather-including-absence-of-foreca

Iancar29 · 17-02-2014 3:37pm

Villain wrote: »

Their TV forecast on Monday evening showed a graphic with "Violent Storm Force11" to our South, their text forecast online stated:

“Extremely windy or possibly storm conditions are likely on Wednesday, with heavy rain or sleet, and some local flooding.
Some structural damage is also possible. The exact track of the approaching low pressure is still not certain, so keep in tune with updates. ”

They issued a red Warning for Cork and Munster with gusts up to 160km/h late Tuesday night with Orange and up to 130km/h in Wexford, Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick and Waterford. A yellow warning for other areas and up to 110km/h.

Reviewing those forecasts with hindsight shows that no-where inland recorded a gust in excess of 160km/h but imo they could have done 3 things a little better:

1. Issued Red warning earlier and included Limerick.

2. Included Carlow and Kilkenny in Orange Alert

3. Used Social Media more to issue warnings and issue updates via social media once the scale and intensity of the system was becoming clear.

All in all I have huge respect for Met Eireann and I have defended this week as I know how difficult it can be to forecast systems when nothing depends on it only my reputation for a few thousand people on Facebook and twitter. Yet they are forecasting for the entire population and businesses and government agencies decisions hang on those forecast.

Totally agree with you , complete respect for them but your 3 points are valid , especially the third one. It has come to my attention that they seem to be " not with the time " for more social media aspect for alerts. .

Oscar Bravo · 20-02-2014 1:19am

A nice round up of the Stormy couple of months just gone from Met Eireann here titled "Whats up with the weather this winter" http://www.met.ie/UserMediaUpl/file/WinterWx13_14.pdf

Elmer Blooker · 25-02-2014 3:26pm

Evelyn Cusack is the Mooney Show at 3 o clock today, might be worth a listen.

Oscar Bravo · 28-02-2014 4:14pm

full article here http://www.met.ie/news/display.asp?ID=247

piuswal · 04-03-2014 6:52pm

Iancar29 wrote: »

Totally agree with you , complete respect for them but your 3 points are valid , especially the third one. It has come to my attention that they seem to be " not with the time " for more social media aspect for alerts. .

Hey guys, Do any of you realise the limits under which Met Eireann operate in respect of resources, in particular staff numbers?

I'm sure there's lots they would like to do but it seems that they have suffered significant staff reductions and may in fact be looking at more.

I understand there is some "administrator" from some central Government Dept., probably Environment or maybe Public Expenditure, looking at Met Eireann's operations and resources.

Who do you think loses out in such exercises? The administrators carrying out the exercise or the front line operational units?

Macy0161 · 05-03-2014 10:04am

Regarding social media - putting out alerts on twitter and facebook is really nothing but a copy and paste job from what they're putting up on their website. They could even just do the alert/ warning level, and what has changed with it, along with a hyperlink to the website. They could also use it to spread the word when they produce reports like they have above.

piuswal · 05-03-2014 1:24pm

Macy0161 wrote: »

Regarding social media - putting out alerts on twitter and facebook is really nothing but a copy and paste job from what they're putting up on their website. They could even just do the alert/ warning level, and what has changed with it, along with a hyperlink to the website. They could also use it to spread the word when they produce reports like they have above.

Get onto them so and tell them how easily it can be done. I suggest you contact forecasts@met.ie as that address is obviously monitored 24/7.

Discodog · 06-03-2014 11:31am

So much for the new short range forecast being updated every hour.

It's showing the rain arriving at 1pm. The radar shows the rain as being 5 hours ahead - it's already here. There can't be any personal input.

Oneiric 3 · 06-03-2014 2:25pm

piuswal wrote: »

Hey guys, Do any of you realise the limits under which Met Eireann operate in respect of resources, in particular staff numbers?

I'm sure there's lots they would like to do but it seems that they have suffered significant staff reductions and may in fact be looking at more.

I understand there is some "administrator" from some central Government Dept., probably Environment or maybe Public Expenditure, looking at Met Eireann's operations and resources.

Who do you think loses out in such exercises? The administrators carrying out the exercise or the front line operational units?

Unfortunately, that is the case with a lot of companies, both Public & Private. But in fairness, the suggestions made are for nothing more about a 10 second copy and paste job on a social media outlet, which does seem to be the way to reach a lot of people today.

As for emailing them to let them know 'how easily it can be done', I seriously doubt they would need anyone to tell them that.

irishfeen · 06-03-2014 7:59pm

What's the story with RTÉ weather lately where some of their rain graphics are missing clouds? .. all you can see on the same graphic page is some rain with and some without clouds... are they getting lazy or what and not correcting it?

DOCARCH · 06-03-2014 8:19pm

I think the rain without clouds is menat to represent drizzle? I know...makes no sense!

irishfeen · 06-03-2014 8:39pm

DOCARCH wrote: »

I think the rain without clouds is menat to represent drizzle? I know...makes no sense!

Maybe they have found a new phenomenon of cloudless drizzle inside RTÉ

mattser · 27-03-2014 11:42am

Spot on again with the odd ( 20 hour ) shower.

jprboy · 06-04-2014 12:56pm

"06 April 2014 11:09

Today
Generally dry today apart from a line of showers in the east of the country, but they will clear early this afternoon. Bright or sunny spells in the west of the country will extend to all parts during the afternoon. Windy with fresh to strong southwesterly winds. Temperatures will range from 12 to 15 degrees.
Tonight

It will remain dry at first tonight but later rain will move into the southeast of the country. This rain will be heavy at times. Towards the morning a band of showers will approach the west coast. Lows of 4 to 7 degrees in light southerly breezes.

Tomorrow

Rain will affect eastern coastal parts on Monday morning before clearing away later. This band of heavy, possibly thundery showers will spread eastwards during the late morning and early afternoon. The showers will ease off towards Monday evening. Highs tomorrow of 10 to 13 degrees in moderate to fresh westerly winds."

I'm confused.....

mike65 · 06-04-2014 1:14pm

Well the rain in the southeast/east early is a lump of wet weather that will clip the area overnight moving NE but the showers are Atlantic and separate to the other rain

blindsider · 01-05-2014 9:09am

Perhaps this has been done to death.....apols if so.

Any reason why the UK Met Office Rainfall radar is SO much more detailed (and accurate?) than Met Eireann's one?

See below for comparison - there is none! the UK one is far superior in every way - it has zoom, it's clearer, it cover a larger area....

Not good from Met Eireann - surely if it's so expensive and difficult to run, they'd be better renting/buying the service from UKMO or one of the european services?

http://www.met.ie/latest/rainfall_radar.asp

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/city-of-london-greater-london#?tab=map&map=Rainfall&fcTime=1398762000&zoom=6&lon=-4.00&lat=51.53

piuswal · 01-05-2014 12:27pm

Firstly, You are not comparing like with like.

Met Eireann are showing a composite of just the Shannon Airport and Dublin Airport radars whereas the UKMO are showing a composite of many radars, including Dublin, Shannon and Belfast.

All (or most)European Met Services provide radar data to each other, through some centralised system (as I understand it) but I think there is a charge/cost associated in using another states data. Obviously Met Eireann has no where like the financial resources that the BMO has.

Likewise when it comes to staff resources, BMO probably has ten times if not more staff than Met Eireann. They would have a whole team, probably in double figures, working with their radar service. Met Eireann are probably looking at a couple of people working on radar as part of many other tasks they have.

As far the radar capabilities themselves, as far as I know Met Eireann are well up to date in that area though it is quite a good number of years since I heard of a new radar being installed. Then again they are not pieces of equipment that are renewed or upgraded every year like smart phones or tablets or whatever. If there are any improvements it is probably in the software end.

You could always contact Met Eireann and ask them any question you like. I'm sure they would only be too happy to reply.

tphase · 01-05-2014 2:04pm

blindsider wrote: »

Any reason why the UK Met Office Rainfall radar is SO much more detailed (and accurate?) than Met Eireann's one?

in what way is it more detailed? The ME image resolves 15 rain intensity levels, the UKMO resolves 8. As for being more accurate, how did you determine that?

See below for comparison - there is none! the UK one is far superior in every way - it has zoom, it's clearer, it cover a larger area....

The UKMO image has 3 fixed zoom levels but is the same image enlarged (or reduced) at each zoom setting. It would be much more useful if it gave better resolution at higher zoom.

The contrast is better on the UKMO image but I wouldn't say it is significantly clearer than the ME image ie you can still make out what's happening.

UKMO image covers a larger area because it needs to....

"far superior" ? I think not. If the ME image could be zoomed (properly) and the background changed to make it slightly clearer, IT would be the far superior image.
As it is, I still prefer it... :cool:

@piuswal - you're bang on about the relative staff numbers. UKMO have about 10 times the staff of ME, about 1800 vs 176.

mike65 · 02-05-2014 7:09pm

Why do they stick up a picture behind the met Wallah so out of sync with weather they are about to forecast?

Storm 10 · 02-05-2014 9:49pm

mike65 wrote: »

Why do they stick up a picture behind the met Wallah so out of sync with weather they are about to forecast?

Completely agree it is the most stupid thing I have ever seen, showing stormy weather when we have had enough of it and want Summer now, how could they come up with something like this you could not make it up.,

As a matter of interest he said that the rain would move up across the Country tonight yet behind him the radar was showing the rain slipping away to the South and breaking up, will be interesting to see what happens.

piuswal · 02-05-2014 10:51pm

Missed the forecast. What was the picture?

mike65 · 02-05-2014 11:10pm

A great big storm tossed wave breaking on the shore. People must have seen it and gone "ah noooo!"

piuswal · 02-05-2014 11:20pm

I wonder who selects the opening background, any idea?

RTE, Sponsor or Met Eireann?

octo · 03-05-2014 11:53pm

piuswal wrote: »

I wonder who selects the opening background, any idea?

RTE, Sponsor or Met Eireann?

RTÉ.

piuswal · 04-05-2014 12:28am

Perhaps MIKE65 should ask RTE what their policy on opening weather scenes is!

All Things Met Eireann Related Go in Here (MOD NOTE #1)

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