Met Office
|
The new building on the edge of Exeter |
The
Met Office (originally an abbreviation for
Meteorological Office, but now the official name in itself), which has its headquarters at
Exeter in
Devon, is the
UK's national
weather service.
Established in
1854 as a small department within the
Board of Trade under
Robert FitzRoy as a service to
mariners, the Met Office later became part of the
Ministry of Defence. It currently holds a quasi-governmental role, being required to act commercially but also remaining an
executive agency of the
Ministry of Defence. In
2003 it moved its headquarters to Exeter from its previous location of
Bracknell in
Berkshire.
The Met Office has a worldwide presence - including a forecasting centre in Aberdeen and offices in Gibraltar and on the Falklands.
One of the British stalwarts - the
Shipping Forecast - is produced by the Met Office and broadcast on
BBC Radio 4. The Shipping Forecast has long been of real interest to, and vital to the safety of, Mariners traversing the Sea Areas around the British Isles and its broadcast on radio is still avidly listened to. Less vitally, the Shipping Forecast has been the subject of both books and song lyrics.
Other outposts lodge in establishments such as the
Joint Centre for Mesoscale Meteorology (JCMM) at Reading University in Berkshire, the
Joint Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Research (JCHMR) site at Wallingford in Oxfordshire and there is also a Met Office presence at many Army, Navy and Air Force bases within the UK and abroad.
The Met Office is also one of only two
World Area Forecast Centres or
WAFCs, and is referred to as WAFC London. The other WAFC is located in Kansas but known as WAFC Washington. WAFC data are used daily to safely and economically route aircraft, particularly on long-haul journeys. The data provide details of wind speed and direction, air temperature, cloud type and tops, and other features of interest to the aviation community, such as volcanic ash eruptions.
The Chief Executive of the Met Office is Mark Hutchinson.
The Met Office issues
air quality forecasts made using NAME, the Met Office's medium-to-long-range
atmospheric dispersion model. It was originally developed as a nuclear accident model following the
Chernobyl accident in 1986, but has since evolved into an all-purpose dispersion model capable of predicting the transport, transformation and deposition of a wide class of airborne materials. NAME is used operationally by the Met Office as an emergency response model as well as for routine air quality forecasting.
In the air quality forecasts, the level of pollution is described either as an index (ranging from 1 to 10) or as a banding (low, moderate, high or very high). These levels are based on the health effects of each pollutant as shown just below.
| Index | Banding | Health Effect | 1 - 3
| Low
| Effects are unlikely to be noticed even by individuals who know they are sensitive to air pollutants. |
4-6
| Moderate
| Mild effects, unlikely to require action, may be noticed amongst sensitive individuals. |
7-9
| High
| Significant effects may be noticed by sensitive individuals and action to avoid or reduce these effects may be needed (e.g. reducing exposure by spending less time in polluted areas outdoors). Asthmatics will find that their 'reliever' inhaler is likely to reverse the effects on the lung. |
10
| Very High | The effects on sensitive individuals described for 'High' levels of pollution may worsen. |
The forecast is produced for a number of different pollutants and their typical health effects are shown in the following table.
| Pollutant | Health Effects at High Level | Nitrogen dioxide
Ozone
Sulphur dioxide | These gases irritate the airways of the lungs, increasing the symptoms
of those suffering from lung diseases.
|
Particulates
| Fine particles can be carried deep into the lungs where they can cause
inflammation and a worsening of heart and lung diseases |
*
ADMS 3 atmospheric pollutio dispersion model
*
Atmospheric dispersion modelling*
Climate of the United Kingdom*
Compilation of Atmospheric Dispersion Models*
FMI, Finnish Meteorological Institute *
Hadley Centre, the
Climate arm of the Met Office
*
KNMI, Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute*
Meteorology*
UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee*
UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau*
UK topics*
Met Office homepage**
History of the Met Office*
BBC Weather Centre*
BBC Shipping Forecast page*
Joint Centre for Mesoscale Meteorology at the University of Reading*
Joint Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Research
