Why was the Shipping
Forecast introduced?
The Met Office, the UK’s national
weather service, was originally
established as a part of Board of
Trade in 1854 by vice-admiral Robert
FitzRoy, the former captain of HMS
Beagle during Charles Darwin’s
famous voyage. In 1859, there
was public outcry when 133 ships
foundered in a violent storm and 800
lives were lost, over 450 of these on a
ship called the Royal Charter. This led
to FitzRoy introducing the first British
storm-warning service for shipping in
1861, making use of the then-brand
new telegraph service. The warnings
lapsed following FitzRoy’s death in
1865, but the public demanded the
government restart the system,
and it was reestablished in 1867
and has run continually to this day.How is information
gathered?
There are over 350 surface weather
stations feeding information to the
Met Office based in Exeter, some of
which are based on aircraft, ships, and
even floats in the ocean. More recently,
satellite technology has allowed
access to remote areas of the globe
and currently there are 15 rainfall
radars able to detect even the size and
shape of the raindrops. Information
is shared across the world with other
countries – in fact, even when political
communication between countries
sometimes breaks down, the flow
of weather information never ceases.How many staff work on it?
Staffed 24/7 by six meteorologists
working 12-hour shifts, the main
weather information gathering and
collating hub of the Met Office is
actually in a protected ops room
staffed by about 115 meteorologists.
As well as the Shipping Forecast, the
areas covered include commercial,
energy, surface transport, aviationand hazard monitoring, including
space weather (such as solar flares,
which can affect GPS satellites and
energy systems). In very extreme
circumstances, weather forecasting
can be handed over to other parts of
the Met Office to ensure continuity.How is the information
transmitted to ships?
When FitzRoy started the service,
a code of cones and drums were
hoisted at harbours along the coast
where they could also be seen by
ships on passage close by. At night,
patterns of lanterns were used. By
1911, coastal waters and the North
Atlantic were covered by gale warning
broadcasts. In 1925, the BBC beganUTC and covers a period of 24 hours
from 0000, 0600, 1200 and 1800
UTC respectively. Gale warnings are
issued as required throughout the day
(for winds of Gale Force 8 or more).What territory is covered?
There are 31 sea areas around the UK
from south-east Iceland in the north
to Trafalgar in the south alongside the
coast of Portugal. These are all named
after points like a sandbank in the
North Sea, a river estuary or headland,
except one. An area north of Portugal
called Finisterre was renamed FitzRoy
to avoid confusion with an identically
named Spanish location.What is the difference
between the Shipping
Forecast and Inshore
Waters?
The Shipping Forecast covers large
blocks of sea and Atlantic Ocean,
some sections stretching right across
the English Channel for example, and
there is a separate service, Extended
Outlook, which covers three to five
days issued once a day at 2300 UTC.
Inshore Waters covers areas 12 miles
offshore between specific points of
the UK coastline. One other important
difference is that the Shipping Forecast
is aimed more at commercial shipping
whereas Inshore Waters is designed
more for leisure boats. As a result,
Inshore Waters gives strong wind
warnings for strengths of Force 6 and
above, regarded as a ‘yachtsman’s
gale’, rather than the Gale Force 8 and
above warnings aimed at commercial
shipping from the Shipping Forecast.How accurate is it?
Shipping Forecast gale warnings
have a 91% hit rate of materialising
in specified areas, with the forecast
in general accurate to 93%. Inshore
Waters has a 96.9% accuracy for
wind speed over 24 hours and
95.9% over the 24-48 hour period.The Shipping Forecast
The truth about
As the iconic Shipping Forecast celebrates its 150th birthday, MBY goes behind
the scenes with this quintessentially British phenomenaThe Shipping Forecast covers the 31 sea areas
around the UK, from Iceland to TrafalgarMBYINVESTIGATES
Today, the Met Offi ce
looks more like NASA
mission control than a
bunch of meteorologistsbroadcasting the Shipping Forecast
which moved to its current home on
Radio 4 in 1967. The Marine Coastguard
Agency is responsible for the provision
of Maritime Safety Information (MSI)
to ships at sea, which includes the
broadcast of warnings and forecasts
(including the Shipping Forecast),
transmitting it via GMDSS services,
INMARSAT SafetyNET and
international NAVTEX. While it’s also
available via internet, it is not part of
the MSI system so should never be
relied on as the only means to obtain
the latest forecast and warning info.How often is it updated?
The Shipping Forecast is issued four
times a day at 2300, 0500, 1100, 170014NEWS