Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Meteorologist and TV weatherman who helped open the world's first weather shop and worked at the London Weather Centre.
On the island
Eight records
The Next Disc
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:10What was your first ambition as a boy?
An engine driver.
Presenter asks
0:51What sort of special training did [meteorology] need?
Well, we have very specialized courses varying in length from a few weeks to several months, but really I would have said must take half a lifetime, really, Roy, in the sense that one thing you cannot uh … telescope are the British seasons and until you've experienced all the British seasons you've no idea of the possibilities of British climate. So really experience is the prime training, although obviously the the basic uh physics and the basic mathematics have to be taught and these are taught by special courses run by the Met Office at our own college.
Presenter asks
2:11How many people in the Met Office altogether?
Uh something just over three thousand.
Presenter asks
Now, Bert, when you come into the London Weather Centre at the beginning of a duty, you have all the information to hand. Is it then up to you to make your own assessment of the situation?
No. Nowadays weather forecasting is a far more complicated affair than that. No single man could manage the task. In fact, it's a team operation and our basic uh central forecast office is at Bracknell, together with a very large computer and a very large uh team of uh people working towards that. What happens in effect is that whilst you have all the information available to yourself, you have conferences uh several times during the duty in which yourself and the television weatherman and in fact uh other people interested all confer so that uh uh a line is agreed if you like. A weather picture is agreed between you all and in effect you all give the same forecast. Um after perhaps a good deal of argument we agree on the line that we will take.
Presenter asks
5:27Do people ring up and complain, and threaten to sue, and all the rest of it?
Well, yes, certainly. If we have uh given a forecast and it doesn't turn out as expected, we would expect to have the complaint put back to us. And in fact, if only to explain the reason for the error. And in fact, this is noticeable that a person who uses the service regularly and constantly doesn't come back to complain so much as to find out what went wrong this time, so that both of us, as it were, can benefit by the experience, and not make the same mistake again.
Presenter asks
6:01Many people are their own weather forecasters. Is there sense in that? Things like red sky at night and cows lying down, that sort of thing.
I think many of the old weather sayings or weather law um had a grain of truth, at least in them. They're all based on fairly good logic. Red sky at night, perfectly happy about. Jolly good sense in that. Cows lying down, I'm not so sure about Roy, but there again, if it works in your area, there's no reason why you shouldn't continue using it.
“Meant it.”
“Quite by accident really, I was studying in the sixth form of my grammar school to become a pharmaceutical chemist and then didn't really like botany and zoology terribly well.”
“Once hooked in weather and weather forecasting, I think you are there for life.”
“The idea was that the Met Office had become synonymous with an official service, perhaps to the marine interests and the military and the aviation interests. Here was an attempt to get the public uh into the idea that here was a service geared to the public service, a weather centre, for example.”
“No single man could manage the task. In fact, it's a team operation.”