Illness and weather....

It seems to have been a while since I wrote. It’s been a funny week or so…a wicked flu bug caught the Captain and it was Migraine Time for me. The worst one I’ve had for a few months. Quite a scary one actually, I couldn’t even think how to get the kids ready for school, let alone physically carry it out. I couldn’t focus on many things and definitely not the computer!

The trouble with not writing for a while is that I now have lots to write about. Which is no bad thing, I guess! I’ll just condense it in to a few sections so as to avoid you glazing over and skim-reading! :-p
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“There’s nothing quite like a summer’s day…

and today is nothing like a summer’s day!” That was always my favourite quote from my weather days!

So, I know I stated I would never write a topical blog as this was for the benefit of my friends and family…however, I couldn’t NOT comment a little on the peculiar goings on in the BBC Weather Centre at the moment.

It all started when I was forwarded a link to a job advertisement which happened to be for the job I used to do back in the day. So I joked that I would apply for it and maybe commute from Muscat to the UK! The Other Mrs. Mitchell told me not to and to just keep living the dream! I, of course, like this idea more!

I digress. On a serious side now, the job has become vacant due to one the presenters ‘being snapped up’ by national television. Good luck to her, it’s a super opportunity.

It seems that three of the BBC’s national weather presenters have been pushed to behind the scenes. All male. All excellent meteorologists and, just as important, all fantastic people. So of course, rumour is that glamour is the word – it’s going to be all about what they look like, not what they know. It could be that the future of weather on television (in the UK) will be made up of trained presenters, not specialists with the ability to understand the science and reasoning behind what they are talking about. I always thought that weather presenting was not an area of media presentation that can be scripted and it’s more than just telling a story. I think all this could have started with the ‘new’ graphics for instance, that were introduced back in 2005. Bulletins were pre-made and it was the presenter’s job to just add a few more charts and then tell the story. A former weather centre chief hits the nail on the head: “Whereas forecasters previously used their own experience to take information from the [scientific forecast] model, they now had to talk through what was on screen”. This will be easy for non-meteorologists. Probably cheaper too.

But if glamour is the key-word here, why have other national weather presenters, this time female, been moved aside? So this might explain the paring-down and the cost-cutting. And yet recruitment is taking place in my neck of the woods. Obviously budget reduction (if this is the case) does not have to be mirrored regionally. It’s all a bit odd...

BUT just to be seen as taking into account both sides, here’s the Met Office’s statement: “Our new contract requires us to deliver continued high standards of accuracy and consistency within revised affordability levels. To achieve this we have employed a fair and open process to change staff roles within the BBC weather centre.”

All that aside, these BBC weather presenters were re-interviewed for their broadcasting roles. However, they were told that would not be allowed back on air as their ‘team leadership' skills failed to impress. SO…..they will become 'weather duty managers'. Isn’t this team leadership? In my opinion and experience, if meteorology is their passion and what they have been doing for all this time, then being shoved behind the scenes in a production role seems to be quite a slap in the face… Then again, it’s a slap in the face also if being in front of a TV camera is their thing. Good luck to them, they will be missed I’m sure.