The forecast is… smoky as Met Office fire causes chaos

Staff forced to use phones to deliver predictions after £97m supercomputer is hit by electrical blaze

THE Met Office was left struggling to provide weather forecasts yesterday after a fire at its headquarters which prevented automated systems from sending out updates.

Staff had to phone organisations and personally give predictions after the electrical blaze in the same IT hall that houses the organisation’s £97 million supercomputer at its Exeter base.

Although the computer was undamaged, the room in which it is housed was left smoke-logged and firefighters had to cut the power while they tackled overheating cables, which meant forecasts could not be broadcast.

The Met Office said there was “some disruption” to services, while the BBC said its weather team had not received the usual data and information that it needs for its weather updates.

“There has been a fire-related incident in one of our IT halls overnight which was quickly brought under control,” a Met Office spokesman said.

“No one was hurt and we are now recovering affected systems and bringing them back online and keeping our customers informed. Our meteorologists are working hard [on] getting forecasts out.”

The Met Office central computer – the Cray XC40 – is used for all its calculations and is one of the most powerful in the world. It was installed in December 2016 and has three main systems capable of more than 14,000 trillion arithmetic operations per second.

The incident left companies struggling to access up-to-date forecasts, while many users reported problems with their weather apps.

One angry oil rig worker, who was stranded at sea, wrote on the Met Office’s Twitter feed: “Sort your system out. I’m stuck on an oil rig because the helicopters won’t fly unless you sort your system out. This is stopping people going home to their families after spending weeks in the middle of the sea. I’ve got a flight booked this afternoon. If I miss, I hold you responsible.”

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to the Met Office HQ in Exeter just after 2.30am.

A spokesman said: “On arrival at the scene, crew confirmed slight smoke logging in a switch room. Crews investigating. Smouldering cables were identified as causing the smoke logging, the cables were exposed and the supply was isolated by the crew.”

The Met Office moved to a new purpose-built, £80 million headquarters in Exeter in September 2003, re-locating from Bracknell in Berkshire just short of its 150th anniversary.

The outage occurred as Britain prepared for torrential rain and gale force winds early this morning from Storm Georgina, which was named by the Irish Meteorological Service yesterday afternoon.

The Met Office issued yellow weather warnings across the northwest of England, and said that full forecasting services would not resume before today.

However, it said that critical services, such as for defence and aviation, were being fully maintained.

The BBC also said that most of its services were working normally. A corporation spokesperson said: “This had a minor impact online and the majority of our services are working normally with minimal disruption to users.”

‘I’m stuck on an oil rig because the helicopters won’t fly unless you sort your system out’