BBC weather

[ian_j_kirk]

How reliable do you guys find the BBC's weather forecast on their website? It says clear skies after 10pm tonight in a nice dark sky location near me, but don't want to get my hopes up too high as i know how unreliable some of these forecasts can be.

Thanks

Ian

[Steve Ward]

I find this site pretty reliable as forecasts go . . . http://www.forecast.co.uk/tamworth.html?v=per_hour

Along with the obvious . . . http://www.sat24.com/zoomloop.aspx?ir=true&region=eu&lat=53&lon=-3

[SnakeyJ]

50-50

Try Sat24 - Im clear at this end, but seeing very poor so far.

Good luck.

[Stargazer33]

It's not a lot of help to you, but most weather forecasts for my area are wrong a lot of the time - especially the BBC! I live in an area that seems to have its own micro-climate. It can be pouring with rain a few miles along the coast but perfectly clear and dry here, or vice versa!

All I can say is that the BBC weather forecast is predictably unpredictable as to its reliability!

[redfox1971]

BBC correct here at the moment but seems to be lot moisture in the air but can just make out m51 and the leo triplet,got to say for my area they do seem correct most of the time.

[Kropster]

Sat24.com is good for satellite view of cloud cover and gives an aniimation of the last couple of ours, so you can see the clear patches coming your way....hopefully!

[Andy_E]

I would love to defend our great British institution but on this point I feel unable. It's pretty poor for cloud cover predictions. I suspect this is down to the exacting standards we astronomers expect from a 'clear sky'... the likelihood is that as long as the cloud cover is light to minimal, it will be put up as clear skies on the BBC... perhaps we're expecting too much? Another thumbs up for sat24 though

[Black Knight]

the likelihood is that as long as the cloud cover is light to minimal, it will be put up as clear skies on the BBC... perhaps we're expecting too much? Another thumbs up for sat24 though

Personally I think that's a fair point. Not that we expect too much, but that an astronomers definition of a clear sky probably does not align with a meteorologists definition of the same thing. For me, a clear sky means completely clear, and will stay completely clear for at least 6 hours, while I complete an imaging run, without even a hint of the tiniest cloudette!

Another second for Sat24. Also, I find the Met office website useful, not for their forecasts (which are obviously the same as the Beeb), but for their recorded observations. This works the same as Sat24, but with options to show satelite imagery for rainfall as well as cloud cover. Very useful.

[coppernob]

clear skies on sussex coast tonight but lots of dew and very windy. Very poor seeing of Saturn as a result. my little etx80 was wobbling esp using the 9mm EP. which is a pity as the next 6 nights according to my iphone app scope nights are worse. BBC weather in my experience hasnt been great in predicting seeing conditions either.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[SnakeyJ]

Just given up - cloud obscured view 360 degrees from around 23:00hrs - Met promised clear skies until early hours. Not a peak of Saturn, but did manage good views of M13, M3, Vega and M104 earlier so not a total right off!

[ian_j_kirk]

well the clear skies from 10pm last night until 6am this morning turned out to be a no show. Supposed to be clear blue skies and sunshine now but looks a bit like it could rain to be honest.

[pete_l]

I did a lot of work on this a year or two back.

I looked at the 5-day forecast they published and came to the conclusion that the first day (i.e. the day on which the forecast was published) was usually not too bad, but that each subsequent day was half as likely to be accurate as the day before. So by the time you got to day #5, it was actually worse than a random guess. [ by that I mean the forecast usually had about 10 variants of weather over the period. The day #5 forecast was generally correct less than 1 time in 10 ]

The summer forecasts were better than the winter ones - which didn't manage to get a single 5 day forecast correct from October through to March ;(

So, if you're looking at the forecast for the coming night, it's not too bad, but for more than that - flip a coin

[Steve Ward]

This takes some beating . . . .

[DaveS]

BBC were right yesterday / night. Chucking it down until 9.30-10o/c then clear.

I was at my club AGM until 9.30 when it was starting to clear. by the time I got home at 10 o/c it *was* clear but the ground was so saturated that I didn't bother.

I think the forecasting horizon is reckoned to be about 3 days before chaos scuppers it.

[bish]

I find quite often the symbols at the top will show a completely clear night, but then if you check the map below hour by hour it's actually complete cloud. This has happened alot so I take no notice of the symbols at the top.

[Wildwood]

I use the forecast.co.uk app and find that pretty accurate most of the time. Would definitely recommend it.