Weather warning fatigue
- 11 Mar 08, 12:44 PM
After Monday's weather warnings, our dilemma at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Weather Centre today is warning fatigue. Forecasters at the Met Office have issued an early warning of severe gales with potentially damaging gusts for late Tuesday into Wednesday. The question is, will viewers listen to today’s message?
The difference from Monday's event is that more areas are likely to be affected than on Monday. The strongest winds are expected to reach Northern Ireland late on Tuesday evening, and then transfer across parts of southwest Scotland, northern England, north Wales and the Midlands during Wednesday.
Gusts of 65 to 75mph are expected with the possibility of gusts in excess of 80mph on exposed coasts and hills, especially across Northern Ireland and northwest England. Further disruption to transport networks and power supplies is possible and there is the potential of damage to buildings and trees.
As a further complication the winds are expected to be accompanied by some heavy snow over the higher parts of northern England and southern Scotland.
So, how do we continue to get the message out without viewers feeling that it's just another warning? Following our morning briefings with the Met Office and discussions with our colleagues here at TV Centre it is clear that tonight’s event is very serious and could lead to even more disruption than on Monday.
Confidence is high at the Met Office that wind strengths could exceed 80mph and as a result we are leading our national weather bulletins with the early warning and making sure that the message is getting out across all of our services.
With each run of data we continue to monitor the situation and increase the emphasis for the potential of damage and disruption.
Richard Chapman is editorial manager of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Weather
