Met Office makes major change to how public can see weather forecasts
Change to come in later in 2026 which will massively affect how public will see the weather
The Met Office will introduce 14-day weather forecasts in the coming months after conceding the public “can understand” the potential for error in longer-term predictions.
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At present, a seven-day forecast is available on the publicly-funded weather and climate service’s website and app, with the first five broken down in hour-by-hour detail.
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The Met Office does give a longer-term view, but it is a less precise and more speculative summary, which it now feels might not be conducive to anyone looking to make plans.
The further ahead a forecast is made, the less accurate it will be, and this has stopped the service from offering a 14-day outlook until now.
But a glance further ahead will be made possible later this year.
Met Office science fellow Ken Mylne, said: “Most previous discussions on expressing probabilities in forecasts started from an assumption that they can be hard for people to understand and that expressing uncertainty could undermine people’s confidence in the forecast and therefore undermine their ability to make decisions.
“However, this research suggests that this assumption is wrong. People can understand probabilistic forecasts and could indeed find it more useful for informing weather-based decisions.”
The Met Office is now using AI to forecast into the future more accurately and has recently renewed its partnership with BBC Weather.
These further-ahead forecasts will not, however, affect the naming of storms.
Storm Chandra is the latest to have caused disruption, with flooding and high winds felt across parts of the UK last week.
The Met Office added: “Developing communication of the forecast in this way is part of our role as the UK’s national weather forecaster, innovating weather science to help people to make better decisions to stay safe and thrive.”