Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
A meteorologist at the London Weather Centre, the only female forecaster there, known for broadcasting weather reports on the BBC.
Eight records
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Love is Blue / L'Amour Est Bleu
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The Young OnesFavourite
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The keepsakes
In conversation
Presenter asks
So roughly the London Weather Centre gets its information from headquarters and localises it.
This is rapidly.
Presenter asks
As well as giving reports on the BBC, do you also supply the weather reports one can get on the telephone?
This is right. Anybody can ring up. This is part of what we pay our taxes for. You can ring up and get your forecast if you're driving. Up to Scotland for instance.
Presenter asks
How many of you are there at the center doing the broadcast?
There are about ten at the moment.
Presenter asks
You're the only girl.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Presenter
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley. It's in the last few years we've heard of the London Weather Centre. Before that we heard of the Meteorological Office. Are they the same thing?
Rosea Kemp
Not exactly. The London Weather Centre is one office of the Meteorological Office.
Rosea Kemp
The Meteorological Office is part of the Ministry of Defence in brackets air.
Rosea Kemp
And the MetOffice have lots of places all over the country.
Rosea Kemp
Those like the London Weather Centre there are quite a few weather centres Southampton.
Rosea Kemp
Manchester, Glasgow, and similar places all round the country also other ones concerned particularly with aviation and smaller offices that just do observations every so many hours.
Presenter
Yes. So the Met Office really is the is the central headquarters.
Rosea Kemp
That's right. The Central Headquarters are in Bracknell, and from there they collate all the information for the whole country and also issue guidance material.
Presenter
So roughly the London Weather Centre gets its information from headquarters and localises it.
Rosea Kemp
This is rapidly.
Presenter
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rosea Kemp
Yeah.
Presenter
As well as giving reports on on the BBC, do you also supply the weather reports one can get on the telephone?
Rosea Kemp
This is right. Anybody can ring up. This is part of what we pay our taxes for. You can ring up and get your forecast if you're driving.
Rosea Kemp
Up to Scotland for instance.
Presenter
The weather information nowadays, of course, is commercially valuable in many instances.
Rosea Kemp
Then he intercepted.
Rosea Kemp
Yes. There are people like well, farmers of course, um, who want to know if they can make hay, um horticulturalists whether they should cover their plants.
Rosea Kemp
Fishermen, whether they're able to go out in their boat or whether they're likely to be swamped by high seas.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Rosea Kemp
and uh lots of things like this.
Presenter
And what's going to be sold, too?
Rosea Kemp
Of course the commercial shops, for instance, if they know there's a cold snap coming, can promote central heating or electric blankets or something and make quite a kidding, whereas those who don't know are so busy coping with the cold weather that they haven't got time to get out they knew good.
Presenter
A gas and electricity bulge. Do they use your sensors?
Rosea Kemp
Yes, they do. They're most concerned if it's particularly cold people are turning on heating appliances and if it's dark people are turning on the lights and they therefore have a much higher load. So they want warning of these factors and we do
Rosea Kemp
Almost hourly forecasts of temperatures for these people.
Presenter
Yes. How many of you are there at the center doing the broadcast?
Rosea Kemp
There are about ten at the moment.
Presenter
You're the only girl.
Rosea Kemp
At the moment, yes.
Presenter
I believe you'll broadcast from a shop window.
Rosea Kemp
Well, it's sort of a shop window. Uh other people call it a goldfish bowl.
Presenter
Ha ha ha.
Rosea Kemp
I often feel like blowing bubbles there like a fish.
Presenter
Or just to improve your audience for the new year, where are you, so that lots of people can come and see you?
Rosea Kemp
Uh
Rosea Kemp
We're in High Hoban, not very far from the Hoban Kingsway tube station, about
Rosea Kemp
a block towards the city from that underground station.
Presenter
How exact a science is worth the forecasting? How often do you expect to be right?
Rosea Kemp
On the average, about eighty per cent of the time we're right, and this includes forecasts of wind direction and temperatures and whether it rains or not we do.
Rosea Kemp
believe it or not, do checks on whether the forecasts are right and we find that this to be about the
Rosea Kemp
average, and that's taken from the layman's point of view. If we say it's going to rain, they check on whether it does in fact rain.
Presenter
Can we say it's
Presenter
Is there any perceptible change in the overall trend of weather in this country? Is it getting hotter or colder?
Rosea Kemp
Here's the
Rosea Kemp
Not so far as our records bear out.
Rosea Kemp
Since we've been taking them, but there again I must emphasise that they've only been going for about a hundred years for
Rosea Kemp
The history of the race of human beings on the earth is so very much longer than this.
Rosea Kemp
But we try and dig out what they were like.
Rosea Kemp
Before from these historical accounts, and there appears to have been some trends, but
Rosea Kemp
These are very, very uncertain and uh people are still working on this.
Presenter
Has anybody done any work on
Presenter
The the the value of old wives' tales. For example, does weather change with a new moon? Will there be a severe winter if there's a big crop of berries? Do cows lie down if it's going to rain? All this sort of thing.
Rosea Kemp
Well, a lot of work has been done on this score, yes. Um many of these are in fact old wives' tales and have no foundation in fact, but things like cows lying down when it's going to rain do, because in fact they seem to have some
Rosea Kemp
a built in mechanism which tells them that the humidity is high. And this is really why they lie down, because very often high humidity just precedes oncoming rainfall.
Rosea Kemp
Uh
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Rosea Kemp
And therefore they're keeping, of course, sir.
Rosea Kemp
Nice dry spot for themselves.
Presenter
What about St. Swethyn's Day?
Rosea Kemp
Well, according to our records, it bears out almost the reverse of the legend. The legend is that if it rains on St. Swythen's Day, it's likely to rain for forty days after that.
Rosea Kemp
Well, if it rains in Stwyden's Day, the records show that it's often dry more times than it's wet during that forty days following it.
Presenter
Rezio, you bring good news.
At the moment, yes.
Presenter asks
How exact a science is weather forecasting? How often do you expect to be right?
On the average, about eighty per cent of the time we're right, and this includes forecasts of wind direction and temperatures and whether it rains or not we do. believe it or not, do checks on whether the forecasts are right and we find that this to be about the average, and that's taken from the layman's point of view. If we say it's going to rain, they check on whether it does in fact rain.
Presenter asks
Is there any perceptible change in the overall trend of weather in this country? Is it getting hotter or colder?
Not so far as our records bear out. Since we've been taking them, but there again I must emphasise that they've only been going for about a hundred years for [the] history of the race of human beings on the earth is so very much longer than this. But we try and dig out what they were like before from these historical accounts, and there appears to have been some trends, but these are very, very uncertain and uh people are still working on this.
Presenter asks
Has anybody done any work on the value of old wives' tales? For example, does weather change with a new moon? Will there be a severe winter if there's a big crop of berries? Do cows lie down if it's going to rain?
Well, a lot of work has been done on this score, yes. Um many of these are in fact old wives' tales and have no foundation in fact, but things like cows lying down when it's going to rain do, because in fact they seem to have some built in mechanism which tells them that the humidity is high. And this is really why they lie down, because very often high humidity just precedes oncoming rainfall. And therefore they're keeping, of course, sir, nice dry spot for themselves.
Presenter asks
What about St. Swithin's Day?
Well, according to our records, it bears out almost the reverse of the legend. The legend is that if it rains on St. Swithin's Day, it's likely to rain for forty days after that. Well, if it rains on St. Swithin's Day, the records show that it's often dry more times than it's wet during that forty days following it.
“I often feel like blowing bubbles there like a fish.”
“On the average, about eighty per cent of the time we're right, and this includes forecasts of wind direction and temperatures and whether it rains or not we do. believe it or not, do checks on whether the forecasts are right and we find that this to be about the average, and that's taken from the layman's point of view.”
“Since we've been taking them, but there again I must emphasise that they've only been going for about a hundred years for [the] history of the race of human beings on the earth is so very much longer than this.”
“Well, a lot of work has been done on this score, yes. Um many of these are in fact old wives' tales and have no foundation in fact, but things like cows lying down when it's going to rain do, because in fact they seem to have some built in mechanism which tells them that the humidity is high.”