Met Office: How to explain this?

[Koeketiene]

Forecast for today - this is some micro climate.

Inshore
=====

The Wash to North Foreland
Issued by the Met Office at 0500 UTC on Saturday 27 June 2009

24 hour forecast:

Wind - Northerly 3 or 4 becoming variable 3.
Sea State - Slight.
Weather - Showers with fog patches.
Visibility - Moderate, occasionally very poor.


Coastal Forecast
===========


Thames Estuary (Harwich to North Foreland)
Coastal forecast for Thames Estuary

2009-06-27 1200 - 1759
Pressure - 1015 mB F
Temp max/min - 21/15 degrees C
Wind speed - F2-3 becoming F2-4
Wind direction - S
Max gust in knots - 18 becoming 18
Sea state - Wavelets
Visibility - Poor becoming Moderate
Sig weather - 10

2009-06-27 1800 - 2359
Pressure - 1015 mB R
Temp max/min - 20/16 degrees C
Wind speed - F2-4 becoming F1-4
Wind direction - S
Max gust in knots - 18 becoming 16
Sea state - Wavelets
Visibility - Moderate
Sig weather - 10 becoming 9


Meanwhile - Metcheck's predicting Easterlies F 1-2


Lesson learned: a man with a watch knows the time - a man with 2 watches is never sure.

 

[SimbaDog]

They are covering all possibilities /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
IMOH the recent forecast are a waste of space, we are only about 40 miles from the met office & they can't even get our weather right for the same day!

 

[savageseadog]

They're too busy predicting the weather in 50 years time. Thread here

 

[Blue5]

We are in the centre of a high with a slck gradient, it is very difficult to pin down a wind direction, the high centre only needs to drift a short distance to distort the forecast wind direction, not sure about the wind gusting 18, presumably as gusting is mentioned if its 10kts more than the mean speed we are only expecting about 8 kts true.

And yes there is too much choice with forecasts, its a case of searching the net until you find the forecast that suits your needs /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Like the one watch analogy

 

[AliM]

They were all right, some of the time. The wind was everywhere, often veering/backing by 180 degs in a few minutes, the strength from zero to 17kt (in Crouch and Roach). Interesting sailing, but the sun was out - lovely!

 

[Koeketiene]

If you're going to cover all your bases you're bound to be right somewhere some of the time.

Ramsgate-Harwich Saturday: SE F3 most of the time - till at 23H00 the wind died completely.

Strange that not one mentioned the ensuing peasouper - visibility one cable or less.

 

[fireball]

In Chi harbour yesterday the wind was from the N & South .... depending on where you were in the harbour ....

 

[charles_reed]

Interesting Thread

Proving that yachties just don't bother to understand Met.

What else can you expect with convective weather about?

Put it down to the fact that thunderstorms are virtually unknown in UK waters