LYRICS
In Britain,
just after the main television news programme,
audience figures rise.
It's weather forecast time.
The BBC broadcasts 44 live forecasts a day,
433 hours of weather a year,
using forecasters from the Meteorological Office.
The Met. Office
makes predictions about the weather seven days in advance.
These are based on observations from the ground,
from statellites and from radar.
The observations are stored in computers
that can do up to 4,000 million calculations a second.
In Britain.
the weather is news.
A television weather forecast
often begins with an interesting fact —
the town with the top temperature of the day
or the place with the most rain.
"The public like that kind of information,"
says senior forecaster Bill Giles.
The BBC forecasters
are professional meteorologists,
but they do not have an easy job.
They are the only presenters on television
who do not use a script,
and they cannot see the map
that they are describing.
Viewers are often critical,
especially of female presenters.
One woman left her job
after rude letters and press reports about her clothes.
The British talk about the weather more than almost any other subject,
so it is a surprise to discover
that 70% of television viewers
cannot remember what they saw on the weather forecast.
"What happens
is that people like watching and hearing the forecasts,
but they probably only take real notice when they need to,"
says one forecaster.
"Or, of course, when we make mistakes!"