Bill Giles’s Arctic blast at new weather forecast that shows ‘too much of Europe’
BRITAIN’S relationship with Europe has become the most divisive political issue of recent times. But the argument about Europe’s influence on the UK has taken an unexpected turn, with a veteran broadcaster criticising the BBC for showing too much of the Continent on its weather maps.
The BBC’S new weather forecasts are a “severe disappointment” because they diminish the size of Britain to show more of Europe, according to Bill Giles, the meteorologist who led the BBC weather team for 17 years until his retirement in 2000.
Earlier this year, the BBC launched a “new modern look” for its weather services, as it entered a deal with Meteogroup instead of the Met Office it had worked with for 95 years. Giles told Radio Times: “The BBC’S new weather forecasts ... are as disappointing as a downpour in high summer. The UK map appears a lot smaller... You may be able to see much further east into Europe (almost to Stockholm, in fact), but if you want to know what is going on in, say, Southampton, near where I live, then you have your work cut out.”
He found it “impossible to detect” the difference between cloud and sunshine and did not understand why night time images have lights on.
Advising viewers to tune in to Channel 5 instead, praising its “clear graphics”, Giles told the magazine: “Has the BBC’S move away from the Met Office to an independent company ‘to secure the best value for money for the licence payers’ been a success? I think not.”
A spokesman for the BBC said: “BBC Weather has a more realistic map which presenters can customise by adding different layers of data to tell the most relevant weather story, as well as zooming in to areas of interest to give a more detailed forecast. “The temperature colours are now accessible for colour blindness, unlike the suggested blocks of colour by Mr Giles. Before the launch of the new services we talked to audiences at length to pinpoint the best possible improvements and we are confident that overall people will appreciate the new features.”