British people talk about the weather all the time because it changes all the time. The weather for us is a national obsession.
This is BBC Television Centre in London. Here, the weather forecasters - or meteorologists - try and work out what the weather is going to do next.
I’ve come to find out if it is possible to predict the weather. Is weather prediction an art or a science? Or maybe a bit of both?
The Weather Centre is somewhere in the maze of the BBC. Their team of weather forecasters work on what the weather is doing night and day.
…..
Nick Miller presents the BBC weather.
Amandeep: Hi, Nick! I’ve found you at last.
Nick: Well, I’m a weather presenter. I like to spend as much time outside as possible.
Amandeep: How difficult is the British weather to predict?
Nick: Well, Britain is affected by lots of weather systems. They come at us from lots of different directions, and Britain’s surrounded by sea. It’s an island and the sea affects those weather systems, too.
Amandeep: Does the weather vary across the UK?
Nick: It can differ vastly from one end of the country to another because we’re affected by lots of different weather systems, and you can have a weather system giving rain in one part of the country, and another elsewhere giving sunny, hot weather.
Amandeep: Why do you think British people are so interested in the weather?
Nick: Well, it gives us something to talk about. You know, lots of different weather all the time. Never the same from one day to the next, so if you run out of conversation, you can always talk about the weather.
…..
The BBC has forecast the weather on TV for 75 years and during this time a lot has changed. The graphics have changed too. There aren’t any magnetic clouds or stick-on suns. Weather balloons, super computers and information on global weather patterns have made forecasting complicated, but more reliable.
…..
Amandeep: So Nick, how do you produce a weather bulletin?
Nick: Well, I get the weather forecast, then my job is to translate that into what you see on television: a weather bulletin. And we do that with graphics - different graphics every day. So what I do is choose what graphics we need to suit the particular weather story from one day to the next.
Amandeep: And what’s the weather looking like for the rest of today?
Nick: Actually it’s not too bad across the United Kingdom. A bit of sunshine here and there, a few showers, some patchy rain in the very far south, but all in all, for the UK this summer, it’s pretty nice.
Amandeep: Brilliant news!
.....
But it’s not always like this. Snow storms, flooding, tornadoes; they don’t sound like typical British weather but we’ve had them all.
Extreme weather is unusual in Britain so we struggle when it happens. We’re used to our mild climate... so it’s a shock when the weather turns really nasty.
.....
Amandeep: So, Nick, this is your weather studio. How does it work?
Nick: Well, first of all it’s much smaller than you might think. And it’s completely self-operated. All I have to do is find my name from this panel here and the studio comes into life. The camera automatically rises to fit my height. The green screen comes on and I can see myself and the weather graphics in front of me so when I look behind I know where to point. All of this is then set up and I’m ready to do my broadcast.
Amandeep: Do you think I can have a go?
Nick: Of course you can, though you may be surprised, it’s not as easy as it looks.
Amandeep: It looks like there’s going to be rain in the south, but it's sunny up north. But then there are some showers developing a little bit later, so I recommend you taking an umbrella out with you. How was that?
Nick: Actually that’s not bad - for a beginner!
Amandeep: Thanks a lot. I think I did OK. But maybe I should leave it to the professionals.
Comments
Hi Team.
In the time code 2:09 ; " The BBC has forecast the weather on TV for 75 years and .... ".
=============
I think you should have added 'ed' to the end of the verb 'forecast' in the sentence.
Am I right, Team?
Thank you.
Hello Nizam,
It's great that you noticed this and thanks for telling us about it. 'forecast' and 'forecasted', however, are both accepted as correct past participles for the verb 'forecast'. So, as odd as it may seem, it is correct.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
The meteorologist forecast the weather. I usually listen to the forecast. I think it is reliable.
Hello teachers. In the sentence "so if you run out of conversation, you can always talk about the weather." , what does the expression "run out of conversation" means?
Hello samira20000,
For this kind of question, please try the dictionary first. The definition of 'run out' in the Cambridge Dictionary, for example, will probably clarify this for you.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello teachers! At 3:13 the lady says "we've had them all". Why does she use this verb tense "have had" in this context?
Hello samira20000,
This is the present perfect tense, which is used here to speak about experience. See the page I linked to and also the video in Flathunting to learn a bit more about the present perfect. If you have any other questions after that, please feel free to ask again.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi everyone,
I'm writing to say a great thanks so much for all this instruments that you British Council Team Members, have made for us English learners.
The my personal story could be a bit strange but real, I have never studied English in my school and I have started to learn it alone in my house every day during my free time, today after a couple of years I've moved in Scotland where I have found a good job and I am sure that it couldn't be happend without this amazing website and my commitment to try to learn this very usefull language.
Thank you so much again!
Best regards
Hello Roberto,
Wow! What a motivating story! Thanks so much for sharing this with us, as it really helps to hear that people have managed to learn so much from our site.
Best of luck to you and please keep in touch.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
the meteorologist is the person who do checking how weather will be in the next few days, it might tomorrow, 2 or 3 or 7 days after tomorrow. sometime, if i have plan to go somewhere, I often check the weather forcast first. I can watch weather forcast on TV, or check by internet. It's often correct. However, it's not always true.
Pages