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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

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 and a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defence. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Exeter ( (IPA ˈeksɪtər is a city, district and County town of Devon, England. Exeter ( (IPA ˈeksɪtər is a city, district and County town of Devon, England. Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The weather is a set of all the phenomena occurring in a given Atmosphere at a given Time. The Ministry of Defence ( MoD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters 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. Events 1176 - The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought 1462 - The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

Contents

History

Established in 1854 as a small department within the Board of Trade under Robert FitzRoy as a service to mariners. The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy ( 5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS ''Beagle'' The loss of the passenger vessel the Royal Charter and 459 lives off the coast of Anglesey in a violent storm in October 1859 led to the first gale warning service. History There are numerous Megalithic monuments and Menhirs present on Anglesey testifying to the presence of mankind in prehistory In 1861 FitzRoy had established a network of 15 coastal stations from which visual gale warnings could be provided for ships at sea.

The development of the electric telegraph in the 1870's led to the more rapid dissemination of warnings and also led to the development of an observational network which could then be used to provide synoptic analyses.

In 1879 the Met Office started providing forecast to Newspapers.

Following the First World War the Met Office later became part of the Air Ministry in 1920. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The Air Ministry was formerly a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force. In 1936 the Met Office split with services to the Royal Navy being provided by their own forecasting services. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service)

It currently holds a quasi-governmental role, being required to act commercially but also remaining an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence. An executive agency, also known as a next-step agency, is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some The Ministry of Defence ( MoD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters 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 Mobile Meteorological Unit (MMU is a part of the United Kingdom Met Office that provides meteorological and environmental support to deployed elements of the The Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research is also part of the Met Office. The Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Change — named in honour of George Hadley — is part of and based at the headquarters of the Met Office in Exeter

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 is a four-times-daily BBC radio broadcast of Weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. 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.

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). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The National Severe Weather Warning Service (shortened NSWWS) is a service produced by the UK Met Office which informs the public of the United Kingdom These are weather events that may affect transport infrastructure and endanger people's lives. Infrastructure typically refers to the technical structures that support a society such as Roads Water supply, Wastewater, Power grids In March 2008, the system was improved and a new stage of warning was introduced, the 'Advisory'. International holidays March 2 - Mothering Sunday (Britain March 7 - Nyepi (Indonesia [1]

Their main role is to produce forecast models by gathering all the information from satellites in space and observations on earth, then processing it using supercomputers. This article is about artificial satellites For natural satellites also known as moons see Natural satellite. Space is the extent within which Matter is physically extended and objects and Events have positions relative to one another A supercomputer is a Computer that is at the frontline of processing capacity particularly speed of calculation (at the time of its introduction If necessary, forecasters may then make adjustments to it. This main bulk of data is then passed on to companies who acquire it. In particular, two of the main media companies, the BBC and ITV produce forecasts using the Met Office's data. Independent Television (generally known as ITV) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters set up under the Independent At the BBC Weather Centre, they are continuously updated on the latest information arriving by computer, or by fax and e-mail. For the UKMET model see Tropical cyclone forecast model. The Met Office (originally an abbreviation for Meteorological Office, Fax (short for facsimile, from Latin fac simile, "make similar" i Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving [2][3] The BBC's new graphics are used on all of their television weather broadcasts, but ITV use animated weather symbols. Independent Television (generally known as ITV) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters set up under the Independent This is mainly how the public are informed of weather events which may affect day-to-day life.

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. Exeter ( (IPA ˈeksɪtər is a city, district and County town of Devon, England. Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name Bracknell is a town in the Bracknell Forest borough of Berkshire, England. Berkshire (ˈbɑːkʃə or /ˈbɑːkʃɪə/ say Baak-shuh/-sheer sometimes abbreviated to Berks) is a Home County in the South Aberdeen ( pronounced; Aiberdeen Obar Dheathain is Scotland 's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar 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. The University of Reading is a University in the English town of Reading Berkshire Royal Navy weather forecasts are generally provided by naval officers, not Met Office personnel.

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. A World Area Forecast Centre ( WAFC) is a Meteorological centre that provides real-time meteorological information broadcasts for Aviation purposes 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.

Air quality forecasts

The Met Office issues air quality forecasts made using NAME, the Met Office's medium-to-long-range atmospheric dispersion model. The Air Quality Index ( AQI) is a standardized indicator of the Air Quality in a given location The NAME atmospheric pollution dispersion model was first developed by the UK's Met Office in 1986 after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, which demonstrated Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. 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. The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union. 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

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. Numerical weather prediction uses current weather conditions as input into Mathematical models of the atmosphere to predict the weather. In November 1997 the Met Office supercomputer was ranked third in the world. [4].

Weather stations

Reports (observations) from weather stations vary considerably. A weather station is a facility with instruments and equipment to make observations of atmospheric conditions in order to provide information to make weather forecasts 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. Closed-circuit television ( CCTV) is the use of Video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place limited set of monitors

Some stations have limited reporting times, while other report continuously, mainly RAF and Army Air Corps stations where a manned met office is provided for military operations. 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. An airport is a location where Aircraft such as airplanes, Helicopters and blimps take off and land An aerodrome is an area on land or water (including any buildings installations and equipment used for the arrival and departure of aircraft Aviation refers to activities involving man-made flying devices ( Aircraft) including the people organizations and regulatory bodies involved with them

Some stations report only CLIMAT data (e. g maximum and minimum temperatures, rainfall totals over a period, etc. Temperature is a physical property of a system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold something that is hotter generally has the greater temperature Rain is Liquid precipitation. On Earth it is the condensation of atmospheric Water vapor into drops heavy enough to fall often making it to ) 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. Air traffic control ( ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct Aircraft on the ground and in the air A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects

Notable former Director Generals and Chief Executives

See also

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
  5. ^ Reason and Light. Meteorology (from Greek grc μετέωρος metéōros, "high in the sky" and grc -λογία -logia) is the Interdisciplinary Michael Fish MBE (born 27 April 1944 in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England) is a semi-retired weather forecaster The North West Shelf Operational Oceanographic System (NOOS monitors real-time Sea levels for the North Sea area The UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee (ADMLC is composed of representatives from UK governmental departments agencies and research organizations as well as from non-governmental The UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau is part of the Met Office (originally an abbreviation for Meteorological Office but now the official name in itself which is the UK The Natural Environment Research Council ( NERC) is a British research council that supports research training and New Statesman.

External links

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