Sunday 11 September 2011

And Now For The Weather With Lucy

My local Radio station's weather forecast usually consists of 'clear spells with a chance of rain and average temperatures' which pretty much covers everything but to be fair, predicting the weather isn't easy.
By looking at the wind direction and the present weather out in the Atlantic or over the continent, forecasters can only predict with any real accuracy two days in advance. After that, using traditional methods, it becomes a best guess but there has been a rise of long term weather prediction recently where solar activity is used as a clue of what the upcoming seasons will bring.
I'm not sure of the past success rate of this type of prediction, when astrophysicist Piers Corbyn began his business WeatherAction over a decade ago where he based twelve months weather on particle and magnetic effects from the Sun, it was treated with the same seriousness as the people who predict the weather using fir cones and how much their bunions are hurting but more people are beginning to take note.
Being a business, WeatherAction charge £15 for a 30 day and £25 for a 45 day prediction but there are other solar prediction services that provide free forecasts such as Exacta Weather and they are predicting bad things for this Autumn and Winter.
Due to low solar activity, the UK can expect a notable increase in usual wind strengths for this time of year that will result in frequent and potentially damaging gale force winds. After a largely wet and very windy Autumn, it will turn progressively colder with an early start to Winter. Moderate to heavy snowfalls as early as October or November in certain parts of the UK with prolonged periods of extreme cold and snow in December, January and February across the length and breadth of the country.
Predicting it being very cold and snowy in the UK during Winter is hardly earth shattering but it might be handy to know that the thermals may need to come out earlier this winter but worse things are predicted for the Northeastern and Midwestern parts of the US with record breaking extreme cold temperatures.
I can hear the global warming deniers screeching the 'Where's your global warming gone then' speeches already. Wrap up warm people.

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