The government has issued its first smog warning in two years as a result of the current mini-heatwave. I certainly noticed it this morning - smoke from the various chimneys around the A3 was just hanging about in the air.
It was even worse driving back towards London this afternoon. You could see the smoggy haze. The London Air Quality Network say air pollution levels in London are “moderate”, although their bulletin map shows a couple of areas of very high pollution.
Of course, London’s air pollution is nothing compared to that of other European cities where these temperatures are more common. If this is bad, am I going to see anything at all in Athens the week after next?!
I bet they didn’t forecast this. There’s a huge storm brewing against the BBC’s new weather graphics. At least its not just me! It even made the front page of The Times this morning.
The BBC’s own Have Your Say debate on the subject is rather sparse on the praise front, with some real gems including “We may be the land that only got electricity last week, but I can assure you that, in spite what the weather forecast implies, we are not a desert” and “God is allowed to mess around with the weather. The BBC shouldn’t even try!”
It never rains but it pours: 
A Scottish MP has tabled a Motion in the House of Commons, urging the BBC to rethink the 3D effect which means Scotland is barely visible at times.
Clouding the issue, a BBC spokesman responded to the various complaints about this by saying that Scotland is actually in proportion to the rest of the UK, its just that its further away so it seems smaller. Well yes, that would be what everybody’s complaining about.
There’s a sunnier side to it all though, giving plenty of material for the satirists: Deadbrain claims there has been widespread panic across England after a forecast made it look like much of England was under water. The article goes on to suggest “Other viewers are also reported to have suffered sickness after one 3D-flyover went haywire, zooming repeatedly from Cardiff to Southampton before doing a pirouette and heading for the moon.”
While whoever decided the new graphics were a good idea must be hoping all the fuss will soon blow over, they need to get some of their staff onside first. On this evening’s 7 O’Clock News on BBC Three, the presenter seemed less than enthused by the new system. To paraphrase: “Let’s have a look at the new-look weather, and as you can see there’s a lot of it. Tomorrow half of the country will be covered in a blue splodge, while yellow rectangles will hover over some major cities and Cardiff will be 14.”
I’d love to see the duty log - presumably the staff are struggling to deal with the blizzard of complaints.
I think we can expect some major tweaks over the next few days. While its doubtful they’ll go back to the previous graphics, I would expect a few of the old forecast features to reappear in slightly modernised form soon. In the meantime, I highly recommend Metcheck for anybody who wants to know more than temperature and whether its going to rain or not.
Yuck!
Today the Beeb unveiled their new weather graphics. Out of the window are the old two-dimensional maps and famous weather symbols, to be replaced by fully animated 3D fly-throughs and, well, very little information it seems.
Our country may be widely known as a “green and pleasant land”, but according to the new weather maps it is more of a desert - and a muddy brown splodge of a desert at that. 
Maybe they know something we don’t know about the impending heatwave and global warming?
The friendly rain cloud symbol is out with the rest too. Now there’s a dodgy animation of bright blue puddles instead. Cloudy weather is signified by a slight change of colour on the basic map from light brown to dark brown.
Apparently the idea is that’s more accurate than the old symbols which covered areas of up to 200 miles. It just makes it harder to see what the hell’s going on if you ask me.
The 3D effect has the UK at such a strange projection you can barely see Scotland at all on the full UK picture. Oh well, it always rains there anyway. Aside from that, if you live anywhere apart from London and Manchester, you’ll need to revise your Geography to work out where you are on the map. Let’s just say they could do with a few more placenames. On the forecast just now even London wasn’t labelled!?!?!?!
If you’re interested in wind direction and strength or isobars then it seems you’ll have to look elsewhere for your weather from now on (surely most people understand high and low pressure?). First of all they dumb-down the 6 O’Clock News to a level even an inebreated chimpanzee could understand, now the weather has been chav-ified too. Unfortunately, its dumbed down so much it took me ages to work out there wasn’t a fault with the graphics and they really were trying to show me something.
I expect there’ll be a bit of fine tuning over the next few days, but overall its a very disappointing makeover at the moment. Its obvious style is now placed over content. Mind you, the style isn’t that great either. The UK has been turned into a puddle-ridden muddy splodge.