Anglia Weather

I’m writing this as a follow up to my piece on Anglia as a whole as I’m sick and tired of the crap put out by Anglia weather.

Over the last 2-3 years this has gone downhill so much its shameful. Forecasts used to be produced to a good standard now everyone there just goes through the motions every day trying to get away with the bare minimum.

The standard of presenters has also gone through the floor. As mentioned in my other Anglia piece Amanda is the only one with weather presenting talent out of them but she doesn’t have anything any good to present. David Hughes is a jack of all trades and isn’t particularly good at any of them. Simon Brant may have talent but judging by the shape of him its for enjoying a good meal rather than presenting weather and as for Rachel Mackley she’s a talentless tattooed sack of crap and the most pathetic excuse for a presenter I’ve ever seen (that’s the polite version of what I think of her) quite how you lot managed to con the BBC into thinking she was a weather presenter and taking her I don’t know. If you want to raise some money for a decent presenter to work with Amanda send her forecasts to You’ve Been Framed they pay £250 for each video used and it’s about the only place her forecasts are suitable for apart from the dustbin.

I will take you through an Anglia lunchtime forecast now

First we have a weather picture sent in by a viewer which is fair enough it’s a good way to put the presenters name up with the web address and twitter plug (hope twitter are paying you for the advert)

Next comes the afternoon which is the current weather (normally wrong for my part of the region)

Then comes tonight

Those of you who are observant will have spotted that the weather for the evening got missed out as no one thought to do a forecast for that.

After that there is a few seconds for the morning and afternoon the next day before some stupid jingles and a blink and you miss it pollen forecast shown here

As you can see it’s largely useless. Pollen levels can vary through the region on the coast it may be a lot lower than somewhere inland like Bedfordshire for example this segment is a waste of time and is only there so they can get some money out of Clarityn as during the tree pollen season pollen forecasts are nowhere to be seen.

and come the evening Amanda decided to go outside (note the sun and calm winds she forecast earlier)

surprise surprise it’s raining and windy

We also have stuff like this on Anglia Weather these days

As you can see we don’t have temperatures in the mornings. This is the sort of careless work Anglia weather is known for now.

Not having temperatures in the mornings is a regular problem as Anglia never have them for some reason. Other regions have them every day.

In the evening as the exact same screen was used (shows how much effort went into the forecast in the afternoon)

As well as failures like that We also have things Like Claire putting weather symbols on temperature maps! I’m sure Claire is a nice person but she is not a weather presenter and I really like Amanda as a person but her work isn’t that good either If it wasn’t for liking her I wouldn’t cap her as her work isn’t really good enough to promote. She has ability but needs to develop her skills further something that will never happen at ITV. I know the presenters are not responsible for a lot of the problems with the forecasts but they put their names on it each day and if you put your name on something its up to you to make sure it reaches the appropriate standards.

Now some examples of how it should be done.

First up a forecast for Monday which bar one minor error looks like it’s put together by someone with a brain who’s sober unlike the existing Monday weather map (available by clicking here) which looks like it’s been put together by someone who’s absolutely plastered and/or on drugs

Remember what this is? It’s a UV index for the sun to tell us if we are going to get cooked or not

And last years pollen forecast 4 symbols not 1 still not very good but a lot more useful than the current rubbish.

What is needed is local weather. For example Hertford is over 80 miles away from Norwich people in each place don’t really need to know what the weather is in the other. East and West should have their own forecast at Lunchtime as well as in the evening. This should include a quick overview weather map of the region like the ones used now before going on to the local weather with actual times for the weather not just vague terms like morning and afternoon. Doing this allows for far greater accuracy and detail and in weather ACCURACY AND DETAIL ARE EVERYTHING.  Ideally this would be presented by a fully trained forecaster (not just someone who’s done the 3 day comedy course run by the Met Office to stop presenters making complete fools of themselves) who knows about the geography of the area and understands it’s effect on the weather.

Someone like that should be in charge of the department so they can scrap the existing system and teach the rest of the team how to forecast and use the weathereye software to it’s full potential. Presenters Like Kaddy Lee-Preston and Kaye Forster spring to mind for the job i.e. Real Forecasters who have done forecasting for a job away from TV  (hint, you conned BBC SET into taking Rachel maybe you could repeat the trick and get one of them in exchange (no donation of leftover junk like Lara Lewington please)). Kaye has been forecasting more accurately for the Anglia region in her local forecasts while out on loan to BBC Northwest than any of the Anglia presenters can in the region! Imagine how much more stupid someone like that could make the existing presenters look if they worked for Anglia. Both of them are way too good for Anglia but that is the sort of standard you should be aiming for in the long term.

Also perhaps Anglia may stand more of a chance of producing good weather if they weren’t obsessed with doing outside broadcasts trying to look good. Enough with the style time for some substance that’s the part that matters.