Bournemouth set-up its own weather station in response to the number of wrong forecasts from the national weather centre which it was claimed has an adverse effect on visitor numbers.
There was a wonderful sense of irony here because for years Bournemouth's weather was recorded at Hurn Airport. Now with the obvious exception of Hong Kong, Tenerife and Newark most airports are set well away from major conurbations, to get to Heathrow you have to fly over one, but usually they are in an area there is wind neutral but they cover a large enough area to be susceptible to possible extreme variations in temperature. This was certainly the case at what is now known as Bournemouth International Airport, I once played football out there under floodlights and finished the match with my boots covered in frost.
Accurate weather forecasting is important in a town that relies heavily on tourism and those involved in tourism have to make judgements regarding stock purchases, casual staff employment, even extended opening hours. I know many people are sceptical of the value of weather forecasts but this area is reliant on good weather if it is to have a good, sustainable economy.
What I really don't need from my weather forecast or news are the meaningless statements such as 'today was the warmest day of the year,' or 'it was hotter on the south coast than in Marbella.' Listen, hell would have to freeze over before I cared what the weather is like in Marbella, Benidorm or even Blackpool. It's up there with the 'an area of forest the size of Belgium was destroyed last year' in terms of impact on my daily life. Why not just take out Belgium?
In other news the reaction to England's exit from the World Cup has been swift and brutal, hundreds of flags have disappeared from buildings, cars are no longer festooned with the St.George's flag sticking out of the windows and barbecues will resume their role as somewhere for men to gather over a can of beer and push bits of pink meat around over some hot coal, rather than places where men can gather and discuss the finer points of the 4-5-1 come 4-3-3 formation that England are so reluctant to play.
And Le Tour starts in Rotterdam this weekend which can only mean one thing, three weeks until I go back to Paris again! Woo hoo!
2 comments:
Now I won't bother adding a huuuuge list to those airports you mention but the weather forecasting thing one of only two things (thing, things...my English teacher would turn in his grave) that I tell people stood out as changing the most after my spending a long time out of the UK. One was road behaviour, I would swear that when I left drivers respected red lights and now nobody does (and I mean NOBODY: boy racers you expect, 'reps' you expect but not anyone and everyone.) Well anyway, the weather forecasting was the other: it went from 1 minute telling you what the weather was to 10 minutes giving an esay and multiple slide presentation on just about every area and angle possible...which was then followed by LOCAL weather for another 5 minutes.
Yes we've become weather obsessives.
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