that's the weather, for now

MetService TV

MetService has launched Metservice TV, not a TV channel as such, but a page on their website for all their forecast videos (instead of using YouTube).

To add to the lovely new graphics and green-screen, we now have even more forecasts! There seems to be a national forecast as well as three regional ones almost on a daily basis.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by having videos so easily accessible on YouTube, because now I'm missing a way to link to (or embed) a specific video.
Ah well, we have more Dan, we can't have everything.

Twitter

There was a query on Twitter about Dan's whereabouts. I replied, mentioning that he's gone to New Zealand to work for MetService. Jacqui Bridges @MetService responded:

@ttwfn Yes, he starts tomorrow as our Media & Communications Meteorologist. ^JB

Good luck, Dan! Those lucky Kiwis.

That's the weather, FOREVER?

Brace yourselves for bad news; Dan told Victoria Derbyshire today that he's got a job in New Zealand and is moving there at the end of this month. It seems that tomorrow is his last day.

Dan drops the bombshell on Victoria Derbyshire's show, 1 hour 27 minutes in, available for 7 days from broadcast.

Good luck, Dan! We'll miss you :-(

17th May

6 Music: Chris Hawkins
I think today it's just one of those days where if you look back maybe in a couple of days' time at the end of the week and you look at the various days of the week, if you had a lovely blue sky day you put a big smiley next to that, big big smiley. If you had a horrible rainy day you'd put a, grrr, kind of a frown day, unless you wanted rain. But today will just sort of be in-between, a little smile, a little chappie but nothing big, just one of those in-between days. We've got one weather front that's sinking south, almost like a neon light, we pull the plug and [makes un-transcribeable noise] it just died, so it's just lost its oomph, not much moisture. But there is some leftover cloud, so you step to the outside or maybe pull back the bedroom curtain and you'll go, 'eeeurgh'. It's just cloud, don't worry about it, it's alright.

You're outside maybe heading to the park with friends for a packed lunch or something or maybe just stuck in the office and you're looking outside the window and you still see it, eeeurgh, yucky, cloudy.

The weather front:
Once again we sort of [sucking noise] suck all the energy out of it.

It's almost like you need that scorecard again.

Chris: Amazing, Dan, thank you very much, the best for a long time.

Listen again, 41 minutes in, available for 7 days from broadcast.

5 Live: Breakfast
30 minutes in:
It's one of those in-between weather days and you say, 'well, what on earth is that?' It's in-between. It's in-between two different weather systems or it's not too sunny, it's not too wet, it's just really in-between. So you start off the day, you pull back the kitchen window curtains and you might say, 'yeah, it's cloudy'.

1 hour 30 minutes in:
How ever you want to slice it, you might put a halfway smiley face next to the day and say, 'yes, it's OK.'

The one thing you will notice, we don't have that breeze, probably blowing your hat down the road yesterday.

2 hours 30 minutes in:
One thing you will notice, the wind won't be as strong as yesterday, so the hat won't be blowing down the road.

Listen again, available for 7 days from broadcast.

5 Live: Victoria Derbyshire
35 minutes in:
Like you pull a plug on the old light socket and it just dies, that's what happens to the wet weather.

1 hour 27 minutes in, Dan delivers the shocking news:
Victoria: Is it your second-to-last day today?

Dan: It is.

Victoria: Where are you going?

Dan: New Zealand.

Victoria: Who said? Who said you could?!

Dan: I'm sorry.

Victoria: What's going on there?

Dan: Erm, the weather's nice.

Victoria: Not all the time ... we want you to stay, we like you a lot. So, go on, what's happening in New Zealand?

Dan: I'm going to another job, to work for the MetService, to be their media communications liaison type-thing.

Victoria: So you're not actually doing forecasting?

Dan: I am but I won't be on television. I'll be more-or-less doing interviews and talking about storms and things like that or lovely sunny weather down there.

Victoria: Wow. How fabulous. So, when are you actually getting on the plane? And who is going with you?

Dan: My wife, and probably the end of the month.

Victoria: Are you nervous?

Dan: Nervous, excited, all wrapped in, yes.

Victoria: Is it a permanent job or is it a one-year contract, or-?

Dan: No, it's permanent.

Victoria: [gasps] Are you never coming back?!

Dan: Well, if people remember back in 2000 when I left the BBC the last time ... I went to the States and after 4 years there I came back.

Never say never, eh?

Victoria: Good for you, even at your age, opportunities keep happening.

Cheeky monkey. He's not that much older than she is!

Then the forecast:
Maybe you're sitting in your garden looking at some of the plants and they're just withering, saying, 'when are we going to get some rain?'

After the forecast we hear Dan's going to Wellington.
:'-(

Listen again, available for 7 days from broadcast.

5 Live: Shelagh Fogarty
The cloud just sort of lurking there, like someone's taken a sheet and gone, fmmmph, across the British Isles.

Listen again, 30 minutes in, available for 7 days from broadcast.

BBC World

Grab the wet-weather gear, hold onto your hats; the BBC/Met Office contract storm continues to brew - and a dark cloud is heading our way.

Avid News Channel viewers out there may have noticed a change in the weather presenter shifts this week, and it seems that it's not just the News Channel that has been affected; I've heard that Dan will be broadcasting on BBC World for a spell, a channel not easy to view in the UK (I've tried).

It is some small consolation that the World Video Forecasts are still available online, so even if we can't see what is being broadcast on BBC World, we aren't entirely deprived of a dose of Dan.

Still, hmph.

'Storm clouds' indeed

I'm not quite sure why I was so surprised to see this, given that we were tipped-off about it a few months ago:

Three of the BBC's best-loved weather presenters are being axed from TV screens as part of a money-saving drive.

Senior weathermen, including Rob McElwee, Tomasz Schafernaker and Philip Avery, will disappear from news broadcasts next month and moved into back office roles as part of a shake-up in the corporation's weather service

Notice the word 'including' there.
Read on...

Under the Met Office plans, the 23-strong team of weather presenters will be pared down, with some roles lost among backroom staff working within the corporation.

Two other broadcasters are also expected to move off-screen.

Two as yet unnamed others.
Gulp.

All BBC weather presenters were re-interviewed for their broadcast roles in recent weeks as part of a streamlining of the service. But the three stars were told by management they would no longer be allowed on air after failing to impress with their 'team leadership' skills.

They will now be moved into behind-the-scenes roles as 'weather duty managers'.

A BBC insider said: 'They were reinterviewed for their broadcast jobs but they didn't make the cut and where [sic] dropped because they failed at the team leadership interview.

But at least two of them were later offered jobs as 'team leaders' in a production role.

Last night a spokesman for the Met Office confirmed there will be a reduction in the number of on-screen presenters as part of a drive to deliver 'greater benefits' to the licence-fee payer.

He said: 'There is a desire across the BBC to have fewer weather presenters. To improve consistency, four or five broadcast meteorologists will be moving to behind the scenes roles as weather duty managers.

'The changes will also result in the loss of some roles at the Weather Centre, but no decision has been made yet regarding job cuts.'

Read the full article at the Daily Fail Mail.

I wonder how reliable the information in that article is?

Anyway, it seems things are still not settled.
The storm continues to brew.

Trouble at t'mill?

According to this comment by 'Jo Blow', 'storm clouds are brewing over the Weather Centre':

It appears that all the presenters' jobs are at risk - word on the street suggests that 1/4 of the on screen faces could disappear within a couple of months.

I haven't found anything online to either support or contradict this but, if true, could it mean that the phrase we all dread to hear moves closer to being uttered? That's the weather, forever?
Let's hope not.

Phew!

Finally we hear the outcome of the BBC / Met Office contract saga. It is as we had hoped; the Met Office retain the contract.

Phew!