Listening to the weather forecast is a source of constant irritation (Let’s scrape the hyperbole off the weather forecasts, Opinion, 19 January) as the forecasters proceed with their inaccurate English. They speak of weather fronts when they mean cold or warm fronts, of warmer temperatures when they mean higher temperatures, of sunshine coming out, when they mean the sun coming out, of the morning time or evening time, when they mean morning or evening. I shout corrections at the radio to no avail. Surely I’m not the only one to want a weather forecast delivered more professionally?
Mary Prince
Christleton, Cheshire
• Forecasts have taken on the role of soap operas, with metrological phenomena playing the main roles. Hence we hear that sunshine will “try” to break through by mid-afternoon and temperatures will “struggle” to reach double figures. No they won’t – they will do exactly as they wish, as has been the case long before man presumed to predict such events.
Bob Caldwell
Badby, Northamptonshire
• As one of the Ulster Unionists referred to by Chris Haskins (Letters, 20 January), I always put the Met Office’s refusal to report on the Republic’s weather – while showing clouds and other climatic manifestations scudding across the 26 counties – down to British politeness: the Republic doesn’t belong to the UK so we shouldn’t talk about its weather, sort of thing. In the runup to Scotland’s referendum vote I was looking forward to seeing how Scottish weather would be handled post-separation. Images of rain, snow and hail buffeting Northern Ireland’s six counties would appear to miraculously avoid both the Republic and Scotland! What fun.
Marcus Oliver
Bromley, Kent
• My mum-in-law cancels trips and racks up the thermostat at the mention of the “big freeze” or the next “weather bomb” arriving on the back of the evil “jet stream”. Save the hyperbole for the serious stuff coming our way soon, courtesy of global warming and our precarious position twixt continent and ocean.
Haydn Jenkinson
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
• “Sub-zero temperatures, rain, gales” and even “snow” (Report, 15 January). Yes, it’s what we used to call winter.
Gerry Wyld
Langley, Berkshire
• How I get ready (17 January). If it’s cold or wet I put my coat on. Or I don’t.
Paul Spedding
Macclesfield, Cheshire
