Met Eireann's fancy new box of tricks.

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Marsupial

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Living as I do on an exposed and windswept hill in the South West of Ireland overlooking the Wild Atlantic Spray, I am a keen follower of Met Eireann, and a daily watcher of the RTE weather forecast after the 6 o'clock news. I'm also a strong supporter of Met Eireann and think that it provides a pretty decent service.

However ...........................

the new, all-singing-all-singing graphics that ME have started using in its RTE forecasts are driving me crazy! It's information overload - far too many charts, far too many graphics, and, above all, far too much information being thrown out at viewers in a very short length of time.

Last night's forecast - presented by the normally excellent Gerry Murphy - was a complete dog's dinner.

As he very rapidly discussed the forecast for today's weather, the fancy charts behind him raced through tomorrow's, Sunday's and Monday's weather (I think that I may have spotted Tuesday's chart too! ) at hurricane force speed. Then, after he had concluded his dash through a forecast that was confusing and all but incomprehensible, the charts for the next 3 days didn't even appear on screen. :(

There's a fast-growing thread in the "Weather" section of Boards.ie complaining about ME's new box of tricks; so I'm just wondering have any other AAM regulars noticed the significant disimprovement (IMHO) in what used to be a pretty good daily service.

Rant over - although I reserve the right to reignite my afterburners if tonight's offering from ME is equally unsatisfactory!
 
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Never watch or listen to RTE. Like @odyssey06 above rely on Met Éireann website. Also use windguru.cz for relatively accurate wind forecasts.
 
But that isn't the point! I'm not complaining about the accuracy or otherwise of ME's forecasts - I'm complaining about the quality of the latest nightly offering from the boys and girls in the Glasnevin Pyramid! (Their app and online stuff is normally grand - apart from when the Shannon radar is down.)
 
I do agree @Marsupial , it's a sprint to get through it all in the time allotted. The rush through the four provinces is especially bad as it's essentially a repeat message for each province with minimal difference. Like others I tend to rely on other means these days. I also find yr.no quite good.
 
joer said:
I find yr.no a better weather forecast site than ME ....
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Agreed. And I'm also an enthusiastic user of windy.com.

But (again) what I'm complaining about here is Met Eireanns' latest TV gadgetry, NOT about their ability to look out of the window and tell me that it's raining!

Tonight's TV presentation by Michelle Dillon was an improvement from last night's disaster, but there were still some totally unnecessary glitches - blank maps of Ireland with no weather data whatsoever showing on them.

Meanwhile Gerry Murphy gave an excellent forecast on RTE radio at 17.55, and who needs fancy graphics when simple speech can deliver the goods?

That's my lot folks. Thanks for reading.
 
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I like the new television graphics of Met Eireann. Also, I like the website of Met Eireann. 1.7 million people live within the greater Dublin area and televised weather forecasts concentrate in that area. We hear it in “spreading eastwards from the west” or “spreading from the east” etc. Living outside the Pale most have become used to website forecasts. It’s impossible for Met Eireann to forecast weather conditions for anywhere else in the country given our geographical location on the globe. An example:- We live in Cork, I’ve no interest in the weather beyond Esker Riada.

Bottom Line:- No agency can predict weather conditions in Ireland accurately more than three days in advance anyway. In the south coast I look particularly on wind direction and its speed before I’d spend a day on the beach. Particularly, I note the percentage chance of rain wherever I intend travelling to.
 
Leper said:
I like the new television graphics of Met Eireann.
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Have you any idea of how much you have just fallen in my estimation?

A month into the new ME graphics, I still find them as annoying as ever, although the presenters are managing them a small bit better. However, the quality of Gerry Murphy's forecasts are greatly diminished for this watcher by his persistent use of his hand/arm to block off the three West Cork peninsulas (peninsulae?) where this TV licence payer lives!
 
Marsupial said:
However, the quality of Gerry Murphy's forecasts are greatly diminished for this watcher by his persistent use of his hand/arm to block off the three West Cork peninsulas (peninsulae?) where this TV licence payer lives!
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I presume he's doing this in order to point to other areas of the country and so not being able to see West Cork shouldn't be an issue unless you have some kind of fear the mere wave of his arm will be enough to make them disappear! :D
 
Leo said:
I presume he's doing this in order to point to other areas of the country and so not being able to see West Cork shouldn't be an issue unless you have some kind of fear the mere wave of his arm will be enough to make them disappear! :D
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Yes and no!

It's fine if his arm blocks off West Cork while the background graphic is static; however when there's a moving weather graphic behind the errant Murphy arm then the accidental blocking off of a view of an oncoming hurricane, cyclone, or tsunami could lead to a major crisis in my neighbourhood. The number of West Cork casualties that resulted from the tsunami that followed the 1755 Lisbon earthquake is unknown, but I'd hate to see Met Eireann's new graphics being responsible for a repeat of that disaster!
 
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Ceist Beag said:
The rush through the four provinces is especially bad as it's essentially a repeat message for each province with minimal difference
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Good to see this has improved since the New Year. They have ditched the repetitive run through of the provinces and instead just quickly go over the country. Looks better now to me anyway.
 
I don't watch or listen to weather forecasts any more.
I used to find that I'd have switched off through boredom half way through and as a result had no clue what the actual forecast was.
I now rely on the weather channel widget on my phone's home screen.
 
I watch the weather forecast website of Met Eireann every day, sometimes three or four times a day. It is a good website and the twelve hour forecast is fairly good. I say "fairly" because much of the time it's a wrong forecast. I've come to the conclusion that ours (Cork City Weather) is almost unpredictable especially during December and January. "<5% Chance of Rain" now means it might or might not rain, but probably will. I haven't made this up and I'm prepared to meet anybody from the Met Office who disagrees with me. All their charts, all their colour, to me just look like my Racing Tips. "It might or might not happen."

Then there's the dreadful flooding in the south-east. The flooding is bad enough but the drivers carelessly driving their vehicles through the floods at speed seem to be causing more damage to houses and businesses than the actual floods. The evidence is there on television, but none of the drivers will be prosecuted.
 
The app is superb - the rainfall radar is very accurate. Given that we always have the app with us, why are people even bothering with/discussing the alternatives?

D.
 
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