We're just back from a week away and it's been noticeable that the forecasts were wrong much more than they were right.
6 of the 7 days were significantly different to the forecast and the one day that they got something near right they over-egged the severity of the rain, which was showers rather than the semi-biblical deluge that was foretold.
As it was, the weather was better than the forecast, and by a considerable margin on most days.
This was good for us as we were on holiday and able to make the most of it.
But one thing that did strike home was how those inaccurate forecasts affected others. On the Bank Holiday Monday, the forecast was for the remainder of the week to be a near wash out, with prolonged rain forecast every day and a near monsoon promised on Wednesday.
We overheard people in the pub on Monday night discussing how they were calling holidays short and heading home due to the forecast.
Yet, by 9am on Tuesday the rain had stopped and the sun was out, I got a bike ride in and then we went for a walk along the sea shore, before having a pub lunch sat outdoors in the sunshine - the following pics are from that walk:
Does that look like overcast and with frequent prolonged heavy showers?
The irony is that all the weather services I looked at all made the same huge errors - BBC (local and national forecasts), yr.no and the Met Office. The BBC forecasters seemed particularly keen to play up the doom and gloom element.
How do they get it so wrong, and how many £millions must it cost the economy when they do?