Met Office
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. 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 September 17 2007.
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History
Established in 1854 as a small department within the Board of Trade under Robert FitzRoy as a service to mariners, the Met Office later became part of the Ministry of Defence. It currently holds a quasi-governmental role, being required to act commercially but also remaining an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence. 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 Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research is also part of the Met Office.
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 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.
Relationship with the Media
The Met Office provides weather information services for most, but not all, of the media in the UK. This can take the form of raw data, graphics and model products that the forecaster/presenter adapts (as with the BBC) or graphics and a script, which the presenter works from (as with most of the UK media).
Met Office Locations
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. 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, Navy and Air Force bases within the UK and abroad.
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. 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. 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. 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 |
Weather stations
Notable Former Directors
- Basil John Mason Director 1965-1983
See also
- ADMS 3 atmospheric pollution dispersion model
- Atmospheric dispersion modelling
- Climate of the United Kingdom
- Great Storm of 1987
- Michael Fish
- Burns' Day storm
- Compilation of Atmospheric Dispersion Models
- Czech Hydrometeorological Institute
- Eskdalemuir Observatory
- FMI, Finnish Meteorological Institute
- Met Éireann, the Irish meteorological service, which separated from the UK Met Office in 1936.
- Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, the Climate arm of the Met Office
- KNMI, Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute
- Meteorology
- UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee
- UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau
- UK Natural Environment Research Council
- UK topics