that's the weather, for now

forecast forecast

Looking through next week's Radio Times I only saw Dan's name once - for the weather after BBC News at Ten on Monday 23rd June. However, the forecaster name was missing, even on the late evening news, for several days in that week's issue.

Wimbledon soon; wonder if Dan's down to do some of the forecasts from there as in previous years?

My current workload is absolutely mind-boggling; there may be days in the next fortnight in which I won't have the time to post. In this case I'll either not blog at all or blog a few days later.
Having said that, blogging might be the perfect stress-relieving work-break activity, so you never can tell.

fixed!

The Sky is fixed! Yay!
Normal service resumes.

forecast forecast

Angela says;

According to next weeks RT, Dan is on afternoon / evenings on Sunday 11th and Monday 12th May.

I forgot to post last week's forecast forecast after some confusion with the date, but this week's RT has Dan down for the afternoon / evening slot this Friday, so if he's doing Sunday and Monday perhaps that means he might do Saturday too.

It's likely the Sky won't be fixed by then and a meeting after work on Friday will prevent me from watching online until after 17:30.

UPDATE: We now have absolutely no Sky signal on any channel. The engineer came out on Thursday and said we either need to chop down the trees (not an option) or have our Sky dish moved, which he can't do until next week.

3rd May

Unfortunately, as I had suspected, the Sky signal was so poor that many of the forecasts did not record at all. We're looking into whether the sudden deterioration in signal is due to the return of the leaves on the trees in front of our satellite dish, or other radio interference (which would also explain why our wireless internet stopped working).

The 18:26-ish (the beginning was skipped entirely) was the only one which recorded anything watchable:
After Monday's wet weather,
Tuesday, fmm, it's gone. Just sort of like pulling a piece of string apart [stretching gesture].

I tried to watch BBC News online but that wasn't working either. Gaahhhh!
Fortunately, BBCi was;

BBCi UK Forecast
Surprisingly, this one doesn't begin with 'hello there';
Even though there's a weather system approaching the British Isles, for some of us it's a pretty good-looking day; temperatures up to twenty degrees - maybe the barbecues have been into the garden.

Yes, they have.

This thing [big area of rain] just sort of slowly chudders [?] its way through. It's taking its time, almost like dragging some stones with it [shuffles along slowly - see pic].

26th April

So, being a night-owl has its consequences the following morning; if Dan's on earlier than the Sky+ records, I miss out - because there is NO WAY I am getting up before 9am at the weekend.
Fortunately, the lovely Mr. George recorded a few of them, then e-mailed me the best of the Dan-isms from the 08:49, 09:20 and the 09:56 - along with some screen-grabs.
Mr. George, you're my hero!

BBCi UK Forecast
For some of us it'll be a day where you'll be putting the deckchairs into the back of the garden [deckchair gesture - see pic].

So yeah, the deckchairs could be going into the garden.

BBCi World Forecast
Big lump of wet weather, like taking a lump of blue and going vvvvhh, like that [two-handed flick of paint at map as if holding an invisible paintbrush].

A mention each for Buenos Aires (how I love the way he says it!) and Denver. Why does Denver always get a mention and so rarely New York or Los Angeles? Very mysterious.

08:49 BBC News
Talking about the warm air to the south east of the cold front straddling the UK:
And in this warm air, you'll be putting the deckchairs in the garden say, from perhaps Cardiff to London, twenty maybe by the afternoon.

09:20 BBC News
If you've got big weekend plans you're probably wondering what's it going to be like. A nice looking weekend for the garden? For some of us yes, in other spots though, it's going to be a wet weekend, particularly a wet day. This is the view out to the outside in Coventry [which, I am reliably informed, was pronounced 'Cuven-tree'].

A good looking start as you'll step to the outside maybe for Saturday shopping.

South Wales, lovely dry bright start for you - North Wales though, you'll be grabbing the wet weather gear pretty soon.

Football fans - busy looking day. Chelsea/Man U; you'll be grabbing perhaps the shorts and t-shirt for that match.

This is what's left of our weather front. Like you pull a piece of string and it just sort of goes 'phfvtt', that's it

Our lump of wet weather, that's moved further south, so southern areas, your turn for the wet weather is tomorrow. Bear that in mind if you're cutting the grass in southern areas, do it today [two handed 'pushing the lawn mower' gesture - see pic].

09:56 BBC News
Susanna Reid: Let's have a look at the weather with Dan [cuts to test card screen thing] Oh! [cut to Dan, who didn't seem to be aware of what had happened and carried on with the forecast as usual]

And then further south and east, good looking middle part of the day. You'll be out to the park, very very pleasant, maybe the kids for a football match or wherever you're going.

Big line of blue here, that fellow, that's our weather front, which is literally just sort of sitting there across the Irish Sea. So across Pembrokeshire up across the north parts of Wales you're in to that wet as it really just sort of sits there through the day because it's sort of parallel to the wind flow, that's why it's not moving, voom, straight through.

It's a good job Mr. George got this one; the Sky+ is still acting up. However, after watching Newswatch last night on the Channel Formerly Known As BBC News 24, we learned we're not the only ones having trouble with our Sky signal. The BBC claim it's an installation weakness, but we've already had an engineer out (and a new box) and we're still having problems. I think it's the BBC I should be shaking my fist at.
So I might have to resort to watching online tomorrow and try to scribble down the Dan-isms as fast as I can.

24th April

Contrary to what follows, I do actually listen to Dan when he's on. I knew rain was forecast yet, for some unknown reason, I still planned two outdoor lessons for today.
I woke up, saw the sunshine outside, left the warm coat on the stair-post and went off to work.
About five minutes later, it clouded over.
Gah.

At work, I decided to consult BBCi. Just as the BBC Weather page was loading, a colleague walked into my room and a conversation about whether I'd get away with those outdoor lessons began. I clicked on 'Watch / Listen to BBC Weather' and... there was Dan! [shakes fist at TBT]

It was an unusual experience, watching Dan with someone who knows nothing about me keeping this blog - yet who, fortunately, found Dan just as amusing as I do.

Just managed to squeeze in another viewing (to jot down the Dan-isms) before the kids came in.

08:45 BBCi UK Forecast
Hello there. Today was one of those days where you peer out the window in the morning [looks up] and you say, 'I don't need the umbrella'. Just put it in the bag, just in case.

The bend of blue, almost like a big little blue boomerang.

Quite a smattering of showers, almost like you've just sort of taken a paintbrush and put paint on it and go fmmm [two-handed flick of 'paintbrush' at map], like that at the old weather map.

10:35 BBCi UK Forecast
Seventeen; not a bad-looking afternoon - maybe even a picnic, you never know.

Got home this evening to find that the Sky+ was still being temperamental and, instead of skipping the odd word here and there, only the odd word and phrase remained.

09:27 BBC News
The entire first portion of this forecast was one continuous skip, then it played normally in time to catch;
Like taking lumps of blue and just going like that, fwww [two-handed flicking gesture], at the map.

The 09:56 and 10:28 were rendered completely unwatchable by constant skipping. I blame the weather ;-)

We're continuing to have internet access issues (the wireless has suddenly and mysteriously stopped working), so updates may be erratic.

forecast forecast

Over on the Yahoo! group, Angela reports,

According to next weeks RT, Dan is on afternoon/evenings on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th April.

It seems he's not on the later evening shift at all.

Had a lovely time up in Scotland, it certainly blew away the cobwebs! Didn't get as much snow up there as I would have had if I'd stayed at home; even this morning there was the remains of a snowman in next-door's garden.

I've back-dated the posts from the days I was away - and normal service resumes!

forecast forecast

I had a quick peep in the Radio Times on my way home from work this evening (not sure if Angela's off on holiday yet or not) and was surprised to see no mention of Dan at all, not on the Six or Ten O'Clock News shifts for next week.

Some blog news now; my 'Easter' holidays start on Friday and I'm off up to Scotland for a short break, so there'll be no blog updates for a few days.
Gasp!

Here's hoping that, a) the Sky+ doesn't crash this time / Dan's on Five Live lots so I don't feel like I've missed anything, b) it doesn't rain too much (I hate walking about in the rain) and c) the hotel has extra-thick duvets ;-)

As usual when I leave the blog unattended, feel free to leave your Dan-sightings in the comments, or e-mail me.

Off to make a start on the packing; lets see... hat, scarf, gloves, warm winter coat... brr!

banner

The blog has a new banner (again) because the previous one was starting to annoy me. It's an interim measure; I'm still on the look-out for a better screen-grab to re-do the old map design one.

6th September

16:56 BBC News 24
So some dry weather over the next few days, perfect sort of weather just to keep the deckchairs in the garden [single-handed deckchair gesture], enjoy the outside. If you need more details, the website. That's the weather, for now.

17:31 BBC News 24
It's been a good-looking day for some of us today. Almost the day you might be tempted by the picnic basket.

17:57 BBC News 24
The ridge of high pressure giving up the quiet weather sitting just to the west and it's like we've sort of put some glue on it and it just sits here, leave it for a couple of days and it's still there.

18:27 BBC One and News 24
That ridge of high pressure still there like we have sticky tape on it.

Computer issues fixed now. Long story cut short; I got a replacement.

forecast forecast

Over on the Yahoo! group, Angela reports news of Dan's next afternoon / evening shift;

According to next weeks RT, Dan is on afternoons / evenings on Monday 10th, Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th September.

Unfortunately, my new computer died last night (murdered by a power cut), so I'll have limited internet and e-mail access for at least a week, until it's fixed or replaced. Gah!

forecast forecast

Arrived back from our few days away (BTW - had glorious weather throughout - sun lotion and sunglasses certainly did come in handy) to discover that the Sky+ crashed on Wednesday morning, which means it failed to record all of today's forecasts [shakes fist at Sky+].

Got back in time this evening to catch Dan on BBCi and also saw his last News 24 forecast, but there were no Dan-isms of particular note. However, on an earlier forecast he apparently mentioned hammocks. That's twice in one week!

Catching up on my e-mail, there were a couple of Dan-sightings in my inbox (thanks Angel, Angela, Ian, Mr. George and Jane - I'll blog those later) and Angela's weekly Radio Times update;

According to next weeks RT, Dan is on afternoon/evenings on Sunday 26th August. There is no mention who is on that shift on the Saturday and Monday (August Bank Holiday), so he may be on those days also - keep your eyes peeled.

holiday

I'm going away tomorrow for a few days, so there probably won't be any updates on the blog until Saturday or Sunday [gasp!].

Although I'm going to leave the Sky+ to do it's thing, there's bound to be broadcasts I don't manage to catch - so if you feel moved to do so, feel free to leave your Dan-sightings in the comments, or e-mail me.

Now, off to finish my packing.
Let's see... umbrella - check, raincoat - check, picnic basket - check, deckchairs - check, sun lotion - check, sunglasses - check!

forecast forecast

Angela reminds us on the Yahoo! Group that Dan is on afternoon/evenings tomorrow (19th) and Friday (20th) and says the Radio Times reckons he'll also be on afternoon/evenings this Sunday (22nd) and next Thursday and Friday (26th and 27th).
As Angela points out, if he's doing Thursday, Friday and Sunday, it's probable that he'll also be on this Saturday.

Not sure when I'll get round to blogging this weekend, I've got a book to read ;-)

one

It was exactly one year ago today that Dan presented a forecast wearing a light brown jacket and, shortly afterwards, 'That's the weather, for now' was born.

I'd long been a fan of Dan's forecasts, with his creative similes (Dan-isms) and energetic hand-movements (Dan-er-isms?) and had for several months contemplated starting a blog dedicated to his genius. But it was that forecast that inspired the blog; the straw that broke the camel's back, if you like.
Or the straw-coloured jacket that broke it.

Here's to another year - and here's to Dan. Cheers!

banner

New banner.
Not sure if I like it as much as the old one, but will leave it up for a while to see if it grows on me.

17th October

16:31 BBC News 24
Those umbrellas and raincoats; they're going to get a bit of use over the next few days, that's for sure.

This other lump of rain here just working through parts of East Anglia, probably London seeing that as well, so the umbrellas at the bus-stop probably in hand.

16:56 BBC News 24
The globe background that starts and ends every forecast seems to have had a facelift (unless it's been like that for ages and I just haven't noticed). I first noticed it yesterday when Helen Willetts was on; the clouds seen in the globe now also fill the background behind the forecaster.

Louise Minchin: Right, now let's find out about the weather. Dan Corbett's going to tell us. I think it's a little bit rainy, isn't it?

Dan: Yes, it certainly is. Some wet weather, you can almost picture the ducks on the pond, they probably have smiles on their faces, if they could have smiles.

The drive in the car later, probably misty and foggy.

So, our first little weather front, this little line of blue, he's just going to sit up there for the day, just to hang out.

The main low just works in for Thursday. It's like I've taken a lump of blue and just gone voom! [gestures throwing lump of blue at the map with two hands] like that.

18:56 BBC News 24
I love hearing new Dan-isms:

Some wet weather for the course of the night and over the next few days as well. Low pressure really just sort of pulling up a chair and just sort of hanging out over the British Isles.

There'll be some drier spots, but not a picnic day for the course of Friday.

17:55 BBC News 24
Dan appeared at the news desk with Huw Edwards to discuss the news that this summer has been the warmest on record.

Huw: Let's have a short-term focus for the next few days then.

Dan: [as he moves from the news desk to the weather map in the N24 pod] I think the umbrellas and the raincoats will come in handy.

Huw: I was afraid you'd say that.

Dan: Yes [chuckles], good news for the garden.

A glitch with the graphics means Dan is obscured by the cloudy weather globe for a few seconds.

Don't be surprised in the morning if you head out and see the mist.

Our first band of rain, this line of blue up here, he's going to sit there for the day like he's just sort of been put in park [gestures putting a gearstick into park - does this mean Dan drives an automatic by any chance?]. The other one, that's going to move away. Then yes, a cloudyish sort of day, some moist air, so it's like trying to just sort of poke holes [stabs air with finger several times] in some, you know, a big thick lump of ice - it takes some time.

Thursday - that's when the main low just works in - and quite a lump of rain. It's almost like we've run out of space to fill in the blue [gestures scribbling on the map]. [shrugs] It's going to be a wet day, yes.

That raincoat and umbrella certainly coming in handy for Thursday and Friday.

18:26 BBC One and News 24
Jane Hill (my favourite of the female news presenters) introduces Dan as 'Daniel Corbett'. Then, almost in the same breath, she goes on to call him 'Dan'. This seems to be a habit of the news presenters on the Six o'Clock News.

It suddenly struck me during this forecast how much of Dan's forecasts defy written description and how feeble my attempts are to capture them. He throws in lots of indescribable gestures at random moments, ordinary phrases are suddenly accompanied by a grin or a smile, decorated with strange emphasis or raised eyebrows. Then there's his rapid and frequent turns from the camera to the map, sometimes he's almost bouncing on his heels, like he's bubbling over with enthusiasm. These are the little things that make his forecasts such a joy to watch and, along with the Dan-isms, inspired me to keep this blog.

Jane must be a fan too; at the sign-off the camera catches her with a big grin. Then, with a chuckle in her voice, she thanks him,

'Thanks, Daniel'.

Dan Corblog

This blog celebrates the genius of the British weather forecaster, Daniel (Dan) Corbett. The blog's name is taken from Dan's signature sign-off,
"That's the weather [pauses, points at camera, slight nod of head] for now."

Ever since my attention was caught by Dan's forecasts on BBC News 24 in the late 1990's I've been a fan.

No-one else does a forecast quite like Dan. He is always entertaining, always looks like he's enjoying himself and, most importantly, he always makes me smile.

If you haven't seen one of his forecasts then you're missing out; it's full of enthusiastic ramblings about the clothing you might need to wear, whether you should pack your brolly or if the weather will be good enough to walk the dog in the park.

Even if it's chucking it down outside, if Daniel Corbett is presenting the weather there'll always be a ray of sunshine in your living room.

I have no affiliation with the BBC, nor am I in any way connected to Dan himself, I'm simply a fan.

If you are similarly afflicted with a Dan obsession, or to report a sighting, feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me:
thatstheweather.fornow@gmail.com