BBC Breakfast weather presenter Carol Kirkwood has opened up about the challenges of forecasting the weather

BBC Breakfast presenter Carol Kirkwood has revealed the difficulties weather forecasters encounter following the announcement of a fresh partnership.

Carol Kirkwood

The television personality wrote an extensive piece for the BBC exploring why weather forecasters can seem to deliver incorrect predictions frequently, detailing the obstacles of forecasting and how it has evolved in today’s world.

During Wednesday’s (6 August) edition of BBC Breakfast, Carol also discussed the article, which came shortly after the BBC announced its new collaboration with the Met Office aimed at enhancing weather forecasting.

“I have been looking at the changes in the weather throughout my career, how much more accurate it is now. Yet, sometimes, it’s still perceived to be wrong.

“Occasionally it is wrong, but we’re much more accurate now than we ever were before,” Carol said on the BBC programme.

Carol Kirkwood
Carol opened up about the challenges of weather forecasts being accurate

She added: “And, of course, with the new partnership with the Met Office, that means we’re going to have expertise of two large organisations.”

BBC Breakfast host Jon Kay then responded by pointing out how technology and new data has made people “expect” weather forecasts to be “perfect” everytime but they can’t be, reports the Express.

“That’s right, because meteorology isn’t an exact science anyway. We have such access to weather apps, data online, television and radio, sometimes they differ,” Carol added.

She urged television viewers to read the article she authored for the BBC, in which she outlined comprehensively all of the challenges involved in ensuring weather reports remain accurate.

In the article, Carol outlined how expectations have posed a significant challenge, which have “risen in our world of round-the-clock access to information”.

“Another part of the challenge is how that wealth of information is boiled down and communicated,” she penned. “Meteorology produces an overwhelming amount of data; it’s difficult to condense it into a snappy, TV or digital app-friendly prediction.

“It means that even when we are technically correct, some viewers might still end up confused.”

Carol and Naga
Carol is part of the BBC Breakfast team 

She continued: “But the answer also lies in the tricky nature of meteorology. It’s a delicate science, and any tiny inaccuracy in the data can skew things – or knock it out of shape.”

Last week, the BBC announced its fresh partnership with the Met Office, eight years after the two organisations severed their relationship. MeteoGroup has been supplying the BBC’s forecasts since 2018.

The agreement seeks to merge the BBC’s and the Met Office’s knowledge, in an effort to “turn science into stories”, according to the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie.