That's describes a lot of people on here.

Yes but, considering its the MET office, the forecast is rarely correct.

Unresearched, gut-reaction, drivel - and totally wrong. The Met Office record is amongst the best, if not THE best, in the world - and certainly the best in the UK, by a very wide margin.

Do you get your weather information from the Daily Express, perhaps?

Why bother as the weather forecast for the UK over the next 5 years is dull and gloomy. :disappointed:

I use http://www.metcheck.com very accurate web page ,the bbc weather is seldom correct!

It's ok. I like the bbc weather app which uses the base data from met office but presents it nicer.

Weather forecast in being wrong sometimes shocker!

IMHO the free WeatherUnderground app is by far and away the best (if you picked up the free Premium account to WU posted here last year you can use that to remove the ads).
IOS
Android

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on why the BBC has ditched the Met Office, and whether what they'll get from the alternative supplier will be better value (even though the money will now be going out of the UK instead of supporting a UK operation). And yes, it's a Met Office blog - but a Met Office blog is a whole heap more reliable than Tory mouthpieces such as the Mail and the Telegraph.

And let's not forget, it's the highly respected World Meterological Organization which consistently ranks the Met Office as one of the top two operational forecasters in the world - not the Met Office. :smiley:

So your response is to quote from a blog on the Met Office site...well they would say that wouldn't they!

The Met Office asked for too much money for a faltering service and were called up on it . The EU ( another entity you probably love) directives on public service contracts meant that the forecasting had to be put out to tender and the result was the BBC secured the best value-for-money for the license payers i.e. us lot. It's not often I applaud the BBC, but they did the right thing.

In these days of deficit, public organisations need to find the best cost-effective solutions without damaging the service - like any private company would. Sorry if that doesn't fit with your narrative. I agree that some cuts have been made in the wrong places but my wife works for the NHS and some of the waste, procedural nonsense and rank stupidity displayed by management is shocking. Nothing to do with 'naivety' or reading right-wing publications.

Thanks, wasn't appearing when I searched for some reason, got it now through the link

Do they offer weather alerts? When travelling in the USA we use the NOAA app which automatically alerts us to inclement weather and gives us necessary advice to go with it, where applicable.

No new app for iOS?

Still trolling flower? Not learned anything from yesterday's attempt?

If it says heavy rain all day and not a single drop falls then it doesn't matter what the percentage says, its wrong.
Last week it forecast heavy rain and we had snow.
It may as well say "put your head out the door and guess yourself"

So... No flower, I don't!

The arrows on the right give you a % chance of rain if you actually bother to look.

Don't you feel like a twit now?

When you say 'those facts', do you mean the bit about the BBC 'apparently' being unhappy about the standard of Met Office forecasting? Or the bit about global temperature predictions?

The first 'fact' is plain wrong - it's purely a question of money. The same reason the BBC is having to drop so much of its sports coverage. And the second 'fact' has little relevance to the 1-5 day UK forecasts, which are amongst the most accurate in the world.

Check out: http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2013/01/10/addressing-the-daily-mail-and-james-delingpoles-crazy-climate-change-obsession-article/

And in particular the last paragraph:

There are also a number of other accusations which cannot be substantiated.

Mr Delingpole does quote Dr Whitehouse saying “when it comes to four or five day weather forecasting, the Met Office is the best in the world.”

This supports the view of the World Meterological Organization (WMO) which consistently ranks the Met Office in the top two operational forecasters in the world.

Our reputation for forecasting accuracy is based on our commitment to provide the world’s best weather and climate service which helps protect lives and property here in the UK and around the world.

Most of the Met Office's detractors work for right-wing publications like the Mail and the Telegraph - known haters of anything in the public sector. Don't believe everything you read there - neither paper is known for its balance or quality. You may try to defend the Conservatives' record, but they are single-handedly responsible for deliberate damage to public services across the country, and people are too naïve to see what's going on. Look at the state of the roads, the state of the NHS, the state of care for the elderly, education, transport - and ask yourself who's responsible. It's not the local authorities or the hospital trusts - it's plain lack of proper funding by the Conservatives, who are hell bent on damaging anything in the public sector that works.

Not entirely true. The BBC has to put their weather forecasting out to tender and although cost had some bearing they have apparently been unhappy with the standard of Met Office forecasting since 2010. Even the Met Office admitted that its global temperature predictions had been wrong in nine of the previous 10 years.

But don't let those facts get in the way of you trying to blame the Government for this somehow.

The met office rainfall radar can be pretty useful. It shows you where there was rain at 15 minute intervals, so you can see youself when its likely to arrive where you live. link

Had this app for the last couple of years but finally given up and got rid of it. It does have widgets. You can have the weather for a number of locations on your home screen. The forecast I found is as accurate as anyone else.
However, the app is useless. Sometimes it will only show you one or two days for your home location but 5 days for everywhere else. The widgets vanish for no reason and you can not get them back as the phone thinks they are still there, you just have to wait for them to appear after a few hours (or sometimes days). The app also crashes constantly. I have no idea why I put up for it for so long. Avoid. I use it for Android so do not know the iOS one is any better.

It's better made, but where are the maps? I would expect them to enhance them and provide observations maps as well not pull them altogether.

iOS app was last updated on 15 December 2014

Dark Sky is one of the best weather apps on iOS. It's not cheap but predicts the weather really well imo

WeatherLive on amazon underground is a great app. Found it to be more accurate than the met office app.

"The BBC knows full well the accuracy of its forecasts will suffer - "

It'll be interesting to see what happens, I know Bournemouth tourist board got so fed up with the gloomy forecasts keeping everyone away (they have a microclimate) that they set up their own forecasting which was more accurate.
I don't care if forecasting is done by private or state it should be given to whoever will do the best job

I heard the BBC is thinking of dumping the MET office because it's so inaccurate and using a New Zealand Company that charges a quarter of the Met office and is better accuracy wise

All forecasts use the same raw data. The problem's how they process it/interpret it/present it. Too many try to predict with certainty. At best, it's still a guesstimate. The forecasts/forecasters should acknowledge that and make it clear in their "forecasts".

They might well do but I'm criticising the app. The BBC weather and this app should show the exact same details as its the same data and yet they very rarely do.

You do realise the Met Office and BBC Weather use the same data right?

Given this is weather "predication" by nature, I find the Met Office the most accurate of the ones available. I too use the BBC weather to get second opinion. Anyway the point of the post is that an updated version of the software is available for free so deal wise it's hot, if you do not like the product then just dont use it.

Rain predicted yesterday in my area, light and heavy.... Not a drop of water fell from the sky.
Last week - rain predicted. Following morning, snow on the ground.

As someone who works outside, I check the weather forecast a lot. Countless times I've been caught out in heavy downpours when this app has stated sun all day. So much so that this app has become a running joke at work where we check the weather using the BBC and accuweather and then we see what this shows, purely for comedy value.

Showers are exactly that, unpredictable. That is the key distinction - rains is an a band of rain that falls and falls as its moves across the country, showers are sporadic popping up here and there as the tiniest nuances in the atmosphere dictate.

The Met Office record is amongst the best, if not THE best, in the world - and certainly the best in the UK, by a very wide margin. Do you get your weather information from the Daily Express, perhaps?[/quotebe]

What planet are you living on dude? "The Met Office record is amongst the best......" How much are they paying you to say this? The Met Office supply the BBC and ITV with weather forecasts, the most annoying thing is when they say " There will be SHOWERS , they never define or say what they mean by showers, It could amount to a trickle of **** or it could be a downpour. In this day and age they should be able to say it will be approximately 3inches of rain in North london and half an inch of rain in Manchester. Saying showers is a kop out, give me a suit and i will do a better job of weather forecasting. Dont mention Met Office to me, my dog is more reliable when it cocks its leg against a tree.

I'd have to agree with stuarthanley. I have the metoffice site up most of the time and am amazed at how wrong it can be at times, even with the rainfall radar. I'm often tempted to go and give the radar a kick - it's only about 8 miles away. Accuracy within day seems to have taken a dive since they upped the frequency to hourly forecasts, and I've little or no faith in their 7 day hour by hour forecast.

Edit. Update 11:28 22/01/16 The forecast for today when I wrote this was wrong. The forecast for right now is wrong. :smiley:

http://en.sat24.com/en/gb I use this instead. Satellite view of last few hrs and next 15 mins plus rain radar, so much more useful than '30% chance of rain later today'

Like the app, thanks for the suggestion, though I prefer the BBC widget for it's now and four day forecast as opposed to the YR four time periods on the same day.

in terms of information for weather, I find AccuWeather very good but its app is memory hungry and slows phone down. I use the web version and its good enough.

No. I use the MET office app that's being spoken about here and it's usually wrong.

Current forecast - rain. Actual weather - cold, clear sky

Now.... How much of a twit do you feel?

Unresearched, gut-reaction, drivel - and totally wrong. The Met Office record is amongst the best, if not THE best, in the world - and certainly the best in the UK, by a very wide margin.

Do you get your weather information from the Daily Express, perhaps?

damn site better than the old app that used to crash when trying to open details.

looks a lot better too

Yr.no is much more accurate and useful in my experience. They have a free app, with widgets.

Not compatible with my Nexus 7 2013 but will install on my old Moto G phone??? :confused:

Thanks for the info didn't know bbc had one

That's describes a lot of people on here.

Why bother as the weather forecast for the UK over the next 5 years is dull and gloomy. :disappointed:

does it come with a widget?