The Met Office Bullhockey

hindcasting – hindpredicting
Go with what you’re good at……………..

So the MET, which is still paid by the government to make predictions, secretly warned the government that it would be a cold winter.
The government ignored it, and did not stock up on fuel, sand, salt, etc…
and thousands of people died in the cold
It’s one thing to fudge a prediction, it’s another thing for the government to know and not prepare, and cause thousands of people to die.
(don’t they realize that their lie is even worse)

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
– Joseph Goebbels

Basically, the Met Office gets paid out of the public purse whether (weather?) they get it right or not, so there’s not a lot of motivation to get it right in the first place. However, the Coalition government here in the UK is having to make all manner of financial cuts (VAT – a tax on most everything apart from essentials like food – just went up from 17 1/2 to 20% today and there’s talk of public sector workers losing their jobs by the thousands) so HOPEFULLY they might start looking at the value for money they’re getting from these people. If the Met Office had to make their money by selling their forecasts I think things would be a little different.

I only wish that the standards required of the private sector by government regulators and bodies applied to them also. Just think of the outcry if this was done by, say a food or drug company.
What is still so amazing and very demonstrative of AGW as religion, is that every time some news comes in that global warming is not as bad as we thought – think, UK winter – this is treated as bad rather than good news. Astonishing.

I favour the idea the Met Office is so compartmented and incompetent that conflicting assessments were issued via different channels. But maybe there are some real professionals there who aren’t allowed to speak to the public but get to advise the military say, and via them the Cabinet Office (but not at the political level: there is some humdrum work via the Cabinet Office, “officials” committees and such, or was when I was there many years ago…)
Still SNAFU tho’

Why shouldn’t they expect to get away with this? They know good and well that the Government won’t do anything and any investigation (assuming that one was started) will just be another exercise in whitewashing.

Wow…..doesn’t their mission statement say something about providing information with the intent of safegarding life and property.
This story IS huge. UK residents…….please stand up and scream.

If they knew a cold winter was coming up, why did they go along with the spin about 2010 being the hottest year, in the run up to Cancun?
Lies, lies and more lies.
They want a new sooper dooper computer, but if the same brainwashed individuals provide the programming, why do they expect an improved output? Insanity!
Iam a UK Resident

Sadly, no, no, try again. Tragically the UK MET Office is part of the Ministry of Defeat, err, oops, Defence.
So no FOI requests allowed, to find the, err, Spin, oops again, Truth. In effect the c**ts can say anything they want, but I am sure there are people, with more connections than me, trying to find out which government departments/bodies the MET Office relayed this information to. I bid the searchers good luck in their quest.

Straight from the Met Office web site describing “what we do”:
•Warn people of extreme weather to mitigate its impacts — contributing to the protection of life, property and infrastructure.

If this story is true, it illustrates the lamentable state of investigitive journalism in the UK.
Potentially, the fall out from this disclosure would be huge. To which Government department/Ministers did the Met give this forecast? What did that Department/the Ministers do with the forecast? To what extent was it passed onto the Highways agency, Local Authorities, the Airport Authorities, Rail Authorities so that they could order sufficient grit and prepare for the bad weather to keep the UK running? If it was passed onto these authoritories, what did they do to act on the forecast to keep the UK running etc?
Given that the UK came to a halt for lengthy periods, heads somewhere should roll so there is much for a journalist to get his/her teeth into.
I suspect that the truth of the matter is that the Met gave no such early forecast. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that it was forecasting the overwhelming probability for a milder/warmer winter. If that is the case, then there is agood story to be had as to why the Met office are now seeking to mislead.
Either way, this is a brilliant story for an investigative journalist to cover in depth. Regretably, the MSM is so controlled this will not happen.

Just a minute. Just a minute. Where is this “the UK Met office didn’t tell us” coming from. According to the Daily Express October 28, the Met Office DID tell us and they said it was going to be a mild winter:
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/winter-to-be-mild-predicts-met-office/
Now they tell us “well we knew it was going to be severe and told Parliament in October”. So they just flat out lied to the public with the mild winter forecast.
And trying to now say “we didn’t tell the public” is another flat out lie. They did say. They said it was going to be mild.

http://www.historyteacher.net/images/Bastille.JPG

There are also one or two of us who would like to know what is going on with HadCRUT3?
No sign of a November number yet, now 5th Jan?
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadcrut3gl.txt
HadSST2, which I understand is 75% of HadCRUT3 was posted at +0.237C on 5th Dec
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadsst2gl.txt
Cold got into the super chips? I wonder if we might see a “joint” announcement about 2010 from both side of the pond?

Love=Hate
War=Peace
Winston Smith, call your office.

richard verney says:
January 4, 2011 at 3:56 pm
“If this story is true, it illustrates the lamentable state of investigitive journalism in the UK.
Potentially, the fall out from this disclosure would be huge.”
Now we have a conspiracy regarding the snow, that’s means it’s got to be called:-
SNOW – GATE!!!
Or as Wikipedia will call it: ” Forecasting statistical aberration of MANMADE GLOBAL WARMING INDUCED detemperaturefied water”

However, the Coalition government here in the UK is having to make all manner of financial cuts (VAT – a tax on most everything apart from essentials like food – just went up from 17 1/2 to 20% today and there’s talk of public sector workers losing their jobs by the thousands) so HOPEFULLY they might start looking at the value for money they’re getting from these people.
————————————————————————————
Unfortunately, the coalition government are all big drinkers of the AGW Kool Aid and won’t hold the Met Office–or their propagandists at the BBC–accountable for this huge abuse of the public trust. I actually prefer the tort laws in the UK to those here in the U.S., but I tell you what, if a government agency here had done what the Met Office did and as a result killed people with their neglect and deceit, a long line would be forming at the courthouse door…

With a casual glance, this episode as all the hallmarks of a bunch of 5 year olds playing some school yard game, and they have been found out. Typical of 5 year olds being caught out, they have just resorted to lies and spin and thus painted themselves into a corner. From here there is no escape, too many conflicting lies have been told, no one even knows what the truth is now, checkmate !
My Dad told me 50 years ago, “some people grow up, the others just grow old”.
Second, the Met Office badly needs a reality check. Maybe one of the international airlines needs to take this mob to task in the way of a damages suit. I’m dam sure that if I were an airline executive with several $100 million jets sitting on the ground unable to fly because the Met Office didn’t tell me Heathrow was going to be snowed in for 6 days, and after I was told it was going to be a mild winter, I would want their heads on a stake !
The Met Office has to go, along with the CRU, they have caused too much damage to innocent lives all around the planet.

I thought that a re-read of the recently released Resilience of England’s Transport System in December 2010 report was in order in the light of this new post. I have taken relevant random quotes from the Executive Summary and Recommendations. I have added my comments after each quote.
“On 1st December, I was asked by the Transport Secretary to carry out an urgent audit of how well the highway authorities and transport operators in England have been coping with the unexpectedly early and severe spell of winter weather, “
Unexpectly ? really to who?
“I can sympathise with those whose first reaction is “why does this country come to a standstill at the first signs of snow?”, as well as those who think that every other country manages these things better than we do. And inevitably the cry goes up “where are the gritters?”.
Perhaps other countries make a point of warning the general public especially in case anticipated extreme emergencies?
“The Met Office gave ‘early indications of the onset of a cold spell from late November’ at the end of October, but detailed forecasts of snow were not possible until a few days before the first precipitation.
Early indication? Not to those who ultimately suffered the most.
“The Met Office advice to our main Review earlier this year was that severe winters have only a 1 in 20 chance, that the weather in any one winter is virtually independent (statistically speaking) of weather in preceding winters, and that this incidence is slowly declining due to global warming; however, one important effect of global warming is that more snow is possible when severe weather events do occur.”
Still making excuses, rather than finding out why other professionals can do it and do it better
“With the same issues in mind, the Transport Secretary approached the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington, who initiated a more general investigation by the Met Office into seasonal and long term forecasting capability. A report was delivered last week; Professor Beddington advises me that the Met Office will shortly be able to make seasonal forecasts (i.e. up to 3 months ahead) with more confidence, and that this will be incorporated into operational forecasting during 2011.”
Has anyone heard of any new seasonal forecasts. Next 3 months are anticipated to be cold again ? who has been warned ? Who will get operational forecasting? Looks like the public in UK do not matter.
“There needs to be a more widespread communication of best practice and encouragement of those authorities for whom the opportunity remains to raise their game. Meanwhile it is up to LHAs and their communities to do the best job they can, given the unpredictability and…“
Wrong again .It was predicted and it was predicatable?
I have nothing but extreme sympathy for the people of UK . This needs to be fixed and fixed quick?

Dodgy Geezer.
CSIRO had the CRU team out to Australia to adjust data. They managed to exclude nearly all New South Wales among other cherry picking.
The result was they used the same dodgy analysis as the Met Office in the UK to predict ghost towns from lack of water and severe extended droughts. Then they applied that rotten analysis to the irrigators need for water for growing crops and declared they would have to reduce water availability by a huge amount to save the environment. The irrigation towns along the Murray Darling rivers systems were burning the analysis in the streets.
Despite their confident analysis, the Murray Darling system has been in major flood this year, Queensland is currently under flood conditions greater than France and Germany combined. Lake Eyre is going to fill for the 3rd straight year. The water has to flow through the Simpson Desert and Sturts Stony Desert to reach Lake Eyre.
It is more than time that these people were held to account.
New Zealand has an Emissions Trading Scheme that is causing the cost of electricity to rise faster than old people can pay. Surprise surprise, who “fixed” the data. None other than another clown from CRU. When challenged in court and caught out, they denied New Zealand even had a temperature record. So the ETS was brought in under false pretenses which will not save the people who have already died from cold.

Like the other comments have said, can’t let them whitewash this.this is great cannon fodder too since they’re gone into a typical reactive state of mind after being caught red handed as being swindlers and their soothsayers at the MET being wrong. Time to get the first bus back home lads, the METs going through some extended maintenance (new models in progress).

from the UK Tele article anthony linked to, we have a freudian slip in Corbyn’s quote, which i don’t believe is by accident. “Met Office has got it repeatedly” when obviously Corbyn said “has got it wrong repeatedly”.
(excerpt)Piers Corbyn, the owner of WeatherAction, an independent forecaster, said: “This is a step in the right direction. The Met Office has got it repeatedly and yet it remains the public service forecaster…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8237397/Met-Office-kept-winter-forecast-secret-from-public.html
also, the Tele article is in the “Weather” section, not a Swinford specialty, and has no comment section.
the latest Swinford piece concerns the English cricket team’s dance!
29 Dec: UK Tele: Cricket: The Sprinkler Dance – from locker room to dance floor
By Richard Alleyne and Steven Swinford
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8230385/The-Sprinkler-Dance-from-locker-room-to-dance-floor.html
the Swinford Met Office article does not show concern for those who truly rely on the longer-term forecasts, such as farmers and dare i say airports, but mentions motorists and “passenger groups”. guess airlines might be included in “passenger groups”!
btw it was Swinford who did the Tele piece about the absurdity of the UK Govt planning to fine airports for not being prepared for snow!! if the Govt privately knew from the Met Office what was to come, why didn’t it inform the airports?
27 Dec: UK Tele: By Steven Swinford: Theresa Villiers: government knew Heathrow was not prepared for snow
The aviation minister admitted that the government knew about Heathrow’s inadequate preparations for winter as she confirmed that airports could face fines when passengers have their travel disrupted.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8225790/Theresa-Villiers-government-knew-Heathrow-was-not-prepared-for-snow.html

I sincerely hope the Met Office continues to play the game this way. Baghdad Bob would be proud of them.

Being caught in one heinous lie already, possibly two, why should we believe anything they say? What possible justification can they offer to ask for any more public tax money when they betrayed the trust of the tax payers, issued false information to the public, and caused wrongful deaths? Shut them down and hire Piers Corbyn.

We have to remember in this astonishing story that the head of the Met Office – one Napier – has just been awarded the CBE for services to the nation. I understand that he is an ardent AGW activist and his role in this event must have been interesting!

Hey,, Julia Slingo,,, How did you get those holes in your foot ???

I would think this would have broader political implications, because now the Met office is putting government politicians in the position of proving to their own constituents that they weren’t lying to the public, and that it’s not their own criminally negligent fault that the UK was unprepared for winter weather.
What the Met office has done is lay a “Downing Street Memo” at the feet of a bunch of powerful politicians. It might be a fatal mistake, because when falsely accused of lying to the public, politicians greatly prefer to keep their own jobs and can get more than a bit vindictive.

Stating the obvious,
If the MET is allowed to claim “backsies” on any prediction,
it stands to reason that any prediction they make is worthless.
Instead of Global Climate Disruption,
it’s a bit more like Global Climate Model Disruption.
And finally, as readers of this blog all know, there’s a decent chance the globe may get pretty damn cold over the next few years, for a variety of reasons. While this cold won’t negate the Global Warming alarmists efforts all by itself, it will have a horrific effect on the global food supply. Should this cold spell come to pass, will the MET and NASA claim they knew the growing areas will suffer significant decreased yields due to lower temperatures and shortened growing seasons? (“Remember that one guy that said we might have a short cold spell before temperatures went through the roof? Yeah, our models predicted that cold. What, you weren’t listening? Wasn’t it obvious that you were going to have to deal with global food shortages?”)

Palin Smith says:
January 4, 2011 at 6:15 pm
“Is there none but Daniel Hannan who will stand and fight for what’s right?!”

=======================
Thank you for embedding that damn inspiring video. I just watched it three times and emailed it my family and friends.
I see the fire in his eyes and I know there are many on here who share the same fire (but not necessarily the eloquence).
Truly, the world needs more actual REAL leaders…. like this guy.
It is time for all of us who are sick of the governmental “monstocracy” strangling the free world to stand up and be counted.
Time to light the torches.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA

Correction: Upon re-reading….I did not mean to imply in my post that there was lack of eloquence on here. There is plenty of it. I was just remarking on Mr. Hannan’s Churchillian delivery…

A hedged forecast perhaps?
From October 1, 2010…“The Met Office don’t issue their seasonal forecast to the general public anymore, using them for internal research purposes only, but as I understand it, their forecast also suggests that the probability of a cold winter is higher than normal.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/2010/10/

“No! It was *their* fault! We told them this would happen!” – AKA, protecting our funding (and we’d like one of those sexy new computers, thank you).
H.M. Government’s response (eventually), “No they didn’t! At least not in time for us to act in the best interests of the public” – AKA, we gambled and lost. But that’s not going to stop us riding the gravy train of AGW, umm, we mean funding worthless ‘alternative renewable energy’, umm, tapping the incredible potential of this revenue stream…
It’s pathetic, really. It smacks of playground behaviour.

All of climate science is like this.
Rewriting of history is how it is done.

So, what if I tell you that one year from now the stock market index will be higher? If it is, I was right and if it isn’t, no problem, I just didn’t want you to panic… Using the same line of logic as the MET Office, my Market Predictions are always correct!!!

I wonder just how happy “the Cabinet” is to have the buck/hot potato passed to them. Because if the MET did tell them, and they encouraged the disastrously blissful ignorance that resulted in the Winter Disaster, they all need to go up against the wall.

The MET Office and CRU should be disbanded.
The British are in big trouble here.
Credibility???

Methinks the Met Office is having its own 10:10 moment.
And that noise off in the distance is 10,000 UK lawyers all arriving at work early to start drafting class action law suits.
No pressure.

You couldn’t make this [snip] up, …… oh, wait, ……………

Roger Knights:
It could be that the politicians were in fact warned, but that also would put them in the hotseat for failing to prepare, which as a government is a fundamental part of their job (keeping up with sidewalks, roads, sewer, gas, and electric). If true then the Met office, for no good reason at all, has revealed something that puts a bunch of powerful politicians in very hot water. The natural response from the politicians would be to virtually defund the Met office and fire all the back-stabbing forecasters.
However, if the politicians weren’t warned, then the Met office is trying to burn powerful politicians to protect what little remains of their own disastrously poor reputation. In that case the natural response is to defund the Met office and fire all the lying traitorous forecasters.
There really isn’t a third option.
I would liken the Met’s new claim to a national bank staff that, completely out of the blue, announces that they’ve been embezzling billions from the public purse but that the politicians knew about it all along. The staff is definitely going to get fired, to the man, and the best they could hope for is to get immunity for their testimony if their claims about the politicians is true.

I really shouldn’t try catching up on WUWT posts when I’m tired. I just read this one and thought it said that the MET had publicly forecast a warm winter, but now has admitted that it secretly told the government that it was going to be a severely cold winter.
I know it’s just a misreading, but can you imagine if it were true? That would make them the most incompetent, deceptive, moronic, and criminally negligent organisation in the West.
Anyway, I’ll come back to reread this later when I’m more awake.

Ahh, now I understand. It’s the skeptics fault (again). I don’t know how I could have missed it. . . .
In my own defense, I made the apparently mistaken assumption that the Met Office was more mature than the average 15 year old girl who retreats pouting to her room when her school-mates are mean to her.
Here, I thought they owned a pair or two of “big boy pants” over there, which their budget would certainly lead one to believe.
My bad. I’ll try to do better next time.

How the UK Met Office sees itself…..and justifies its multi-million pound existence….
“Working at the Met Office means working for an employer whose operations have a real impact on the lives of everyone.
If you watched, listened to or read the news this morning it is likely that the Met Office played an important part in much of the coverage — we are the most well-known weather information supplier in the UK.
We employ around 1,800 people at 60 sites across the world, most (about 1,400) working out of our headquarters at Exeter.
Our vision is to be recognised as the best weather and climate service in the world. Leading-edge science, innovation and research are crucial for us to meet that goal. From the technical aspects of collecting weather data, to world-leading numerical models, to state-of-the-art software, science goes to the core of our business.”

Eco;
So, the MET is uniquely erroneous! Such an honour. Such a travesty!

In the 12th century England, it has been punishable by death (hanging) to claim to be able to predict the weather.
There has been some progress during the last 800 years. Now they pay for the same crime.

Keep the part of the Met Office that produces the Shipping Forecasts and scrap the rest.
Give the job of predicting the UK weather to Joe B. and Piers C. Pay them handsomely.
The only snag will be that if any prediction is even slightly inaccurate then sadly Joe B. and Piers C. will be vilified unlike the Met Office mistakes/lies/inaccuracy that pass through the media with barely a whisper – if that.

“Surely the good people of the UK have to be sick of this by now?”
Yes, we bloody well are!
Write or e-mail your local MP making it clear that you’re sick of the one-sidedness of the whole AGW topic. Our voices are being ignored by those in Westminster. We’ve had enough.
Make a list of scientific facts about CO2, etc.; make a list of proper scientists and science organisations across the world who are opposed to both the claims that CO2 is a pollutant and the debasement of science due to the politicisation of climate science.
MPs are obliged to respond, they may even be obliged to pass on your letter to the Energy Secretary himself. However far the letters go, make your opinion known to those people who establish policy in this country. Don’t just whine about it on websites.
For those who missed the Electricity Market Reform Statement in the House of Commons, here is the text http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/emr_os/emr_os.aspx (unfortunately, the video from the HoC is no longer available on the BBC website – if anyone recorded it please put it online so everyone can see what we’re up against).
The same applies to all members of the electorate across the world: write to your parliamentary representative – they work for you, we are not subservient to them, so please make your voice heard via the official channel that is your constitutional right.

Alan Simpson not from Friends of the Earth says:
January 4, 2011 at 3:41 pm
‘Sadly, no, no, try again. Tragically the UK MET Office is part of the Ministry of Defeat, err, oops, Defence.
So no FOI requests allowed’
Not so, at least according to the Met’s own FOI page:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/legal/foi.html

tallbloke says:
January 5, 2011 at 12:00 am
‘I’ll write to my MP and get him to ask a couple of awkward questions.’
I wish I could say the same – my MP is Britain’s only Green member, the appalling Caroline Lucas.

The Met Office issued it’s probability of warmer weather for Nov/Dec/Jan in October; in the West London suburb where I live, temperatures fell below zero degrees C and light snow also fell on the 28th October and continued to fall until Dec 3. Light snow fell again on Dec 8, then temps increased until Dec 17 when temps abruptly dropped to 1deg C and light snow fell once more, which increased to heavy falls on Dec 18 and continued to snow moderately until a final heavy snowfall on Dec 20th. All this in an area where snow is fampous for NOT falling!
It seems that the Met Office can only forecast with reasonable accuracy when the weather appears on the radar. Their Teraflop computer is as useful to them as a new formula 1 car would be to me, no matter how much I would like to have such a car in my back yard!
I suspect Roger Harribin has been very economical with the truth in an attempt to stay in line with the BBC’s Warmist beliefs and to prevent the value of the BBC’s invested pension funds from plummeting in the same manner as carbon trading has.

Surely the good people of the UK have to be sick of this by now?
Yes we are. Perhaps we can hope that ‘Chlorophyll Dave’ Cameron will see this moronity as a personal affront, boneless though he is. Although he does seem able to tolerate Chris Morhuhne as energy secretary. Not holding the breath, though.
——
RichieP says:
January 5, 2011 at 2:25 am
tallbloke says:
January 5, 2011 at 12:00 am
‘I’ll write to my MP and get him to ask a couple of awkward questions.’
I wish I could say the same – my MP is Britain’s only Green member, the appalling Caroline Lucas.
In that case, write to her ten times as often. She, no doubt, now wants to hang on to her salary and expenses.

FOI request:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/this_winters_weather_forecast_go

Er….the map is quite accurate -October 2010 WAS exceptionally warm in the UK. However I agree with the main sentiment on here, the Met Office should stick to predicting the weather, not spending half the budget on Climate Change sorry Climate Disruption.
The airports, roads and railways clearly are under the impression, fed by the Met Office et al, that heavy snowfalls will become very rare events. This is what we were told in 2000 by the Met Office (generations of children will grow up never seeing snow etc). Hence the lack of investment in snow clearing capability.

Climate Projections
If everyone wants a laugh, I suggest that they visit this site. Note the disticntion between projections and forecasts and probability versus possibility.
http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/content/view/12/689/
I actually saw a presenatation from these people where they said that their projections could guide local authorities to what the weather would be like in 30 years down to a 5km grid!
Chhers
Paul

So what you are saying is that the “Met Office” is ligit?!?!?!?!? Dear gawd. Where have I been. I thought it was one of the English comedies I get such a big kick out of. Are you sure the acronym is not “Monty’s Excellent Tripe Office”? I’m aghast I say!

@RichieP
“I wish I could say the same – my MP is Britain’s only Green member, the appalling Caroline Lucas.”
You have it worse than most, mate. Trying to convince Lucas that her carbon-is-evil mentality is wrong will be near-enough impossible. Still, do your best. The more people in her constituency write to her to highlight the CO2-myth the better.

Louise says:
January 5, 2011 at 6:07 am
So I guess you wouldn’t dream of commenting on things the USA do then? like CARB, or Afghanistan, etc? But I suppose you think it’s OK for the EU to direct us too?Hmmmm….

“Stop Common Purpose says:
January 5, 2011 at 4:24 am
FOI request: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/this_winters_weather_forecast_go”
This is the most constructive comment so far!
As the MSM in the UK are too lilly livered to cover anything like this, is it possible that this EXCELLENT US based website could keep this FOI request covered ?

Louise says:
January 5, 2011 at 6:07 am
I’m a British tax-payer and I think it is odious that this USA based site should feel that it has a right to advise us to picket the Met Office.
Also – I too have written to my MP (and e-mailed before his election to ensure I knew his views) and the day that he starts to spout any of the skeptic nonsense I see trotted out here (e.g. Easterbrouke’s debacle) is the day he loses my vote.
It may amaze you, but we actually have that right here in the U.S., Louise.
Feel free to write your MP and tell them what ever you want, but if your Met Office doesn’t get it’s act together then don’t expect your elected officials to stick by them when they could just as easily listen to Piers Corbyn and actually be prepared for once.

addendum: the Met Office, that is.

Incidentally, I’m quite glad the Met office are always WRONG. I like these white winters

Louise says:
January 5, 2011 at 6:07 am
‘I’m a British tax-payer and I think it is odious that this USA based site should feel that it has a right to advise us to picket the Met Office. Also – I too have written to my MP (and e-mailed before his election to ensure I knew his views) and the day that he starts to spout any of the skeptic nonsense I see trotted out here (e.g. Easterbrouke’s debacle) is the day he loses my vote.’
Doncha wish you had that nice little Red Button handy, Louise? That’d sort out all us awful, awful people wouldn’t it? Pah! (And I’m a British tax payer too, so there.)

If it is true that the Met. Office advised the government that it was going to be a very bad winter and the government did not pass on this vital information to the general public, then the government has to be held to account. Did the information get passed on to the Department of the Environment, The Highways Agency, The Department of Health, The Chief Medical Officer, The BBC, and the Press Association? If not why not. We need some explanations from government officials for a very serious failing in their duty if they just ignored the information they were given, a failing that has led to such widespread havoc across the whole of the country.

I’ve sent Freedom of Information requests to both the Met Office and the UK government’s Cabinet Office asking for this “secret warning” from the Met Office.

Louise says:
January 5, 2011 at 6:07 am
I’m a British tax-payer and I think it is odious that this USA based site should feel that it has a right to advise us to picket the Met Office.
Also – I too have written to my MP (and e-mailed before his election to ensure I knew his views) and the day that he starts to spout any of the skeptic nonsense I see trotted out here (e.g. Easterbrouke’s debacle) is the day he loses my vote.
I am also a UK taxpayer. I believe the sooner the Met Office is shut down the better! If they won’t shut it down it should be sold-off to private industry where they would HAVE to get their forecasts more right than at present to keep their jobs.
Presumably you are a supporter of Huhne (the so-called Energy Minister). Do you support his efforts to drive up inflation by all this “carbon credit” nonsense? Do you support his efforts to redirect what remaining industry we have in this country overseas e.g. to India and China, by the “carbon credit” nonsense?
Have you made any attempt whatsoever to research the Climate Change arguement for yourself or do you just believe the BBC?

Wonderful. Pantomime season in the UK?

People of Britain would be much better served by the 85% accurate, extremely long range predictions of Piers Corbin at Weather Action armed with only his laptop computer than with the inept Met Office with all its bloated budgets and supercomputers that cannot forecast their way out of a paper bag.

Louise says:
January 5, 2011 at 6:07 am
“I’m a British tax-payer and I think it is odious that this USA based site should feel that it has a right to advise us to picket the Met Office.”
Louise, don’t forget that Global Warming is a global problem! (or global non-problem, depending on your point of view.)

The BBC News weather forecast did not mention snow for our area of the Cotswolds on Monday night, but we sure had snow! Tuesday morning our local side roads were lethal and there was a traffic accident nearby. Thanks for the warning Met Office…I don’t think.

kzb wrote in a comment at:
January 5, 2011 at 4:40 am
“Er….the map is quite accurate -October 2010 WAS exceptionally warm in the UK. However I agree with the main sentiment on here, the Met Office should stick to predicting the weather, not spending half the budget on Climate Change sorry Climate Disruption.”
October was not warm in England – the Central England Mean Temperature for October 2010 was 10.3 celsius – 0.3 below the 1961-90 mean!

This just in:
Dateline, Mexico City, January 10, 2110
Climate scientists have confirmed that the glaciers now covering Canada and moving into the northern United States are consistent with global warming. “You can’t confuse weather with climate” said one climatologist who asked not to be identified for fear of being lynched. “The accumulation of so much ice on land is limited to the northern hemisphere, and is just an example of the temperature extremes that result from global warming” cautioned another climate scientist, also requesting anonymity. One unnamed progressive academic, channeling the spirit of James Hansen, reassured this reporter that Hansen’s predictions of catastrophic global warming were accurate, it’s just that his timing was off by a number of millennia.
Further demonstrating the accuracy of the consensus predictions of impending doom due to anthropogenic climate change, Michael Mann, IV just published a paleo reconstruction of global temperatures in Nature. This meticulously peer reviewed paper shows conclusively that the adjusted global average temperature in the years from 1970 to 2010 was actually much colder than previously thought, thus making 2110 the warmest year in recorded history. His paper includes a graph showing that the “2nd Millennial Warm Period,” from 1970 to 1998, was grossly exaggerated. “Anecdotal evidence of liquid lakes in Canada, the U.S and Great Britain during this period should not be used to ignore the science” warned Mann.
In other news, the British Met Office, having relocated to Sao Paulo, Brazil due to the 10 meters of ice now covering Great Britain, forecasts a warm winter ahead.

To tell people winter would be mild when you knew it would be cold seems to be a criminal act.
If this story is true then there has to be criminal charges following.

In the US I would imagine something like this would be a civil matter. It seems to me it would be difficult to craft a law to make such claims illegal (technically, I don’t think any government agent is actually required to tell the truth unless under oath.) A nice hefty lawsuit, however, since such an act could easily be considered negligent given the weight of their words…
Mark

Anthony writes: “They apparently just don’t know when to stop talking.”
The CAGW boffins don’t know “The First Rule of Holes” which is stated as:
1. When you find you’ve dug yourself into a hole: stop digging.

Apologies folks if this has already been covered more accurately above – didn’t have time to trawl through all your posts.
Unfortunately came in on the ‘tail end’ of an item on BBC News 24 relating to December 2010 being the coldest for 100 years, and some guy in their Oxford studio, was doing a not-very-good job of waffling on about: ‘Actually the world is getting warmer due to climate change and we can prove it IF ONLY THE MET OFFICE HAD MORE POWERFUL COMPUTERS…’ (I kid you not..)
The news anchorman was clearly unimpressed..!

As far as I’m aware, Piers (Richard) Corbyn was the only person who predicted in advance the winter weather.
Post hoc predictions we can all do with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight