Episode 2 The Great British Weather

Remember, that is per square inch. Multiply that by Swansea, Glasgow

and London... Basically it is a lot of rain. Just a few miles from the

seat and made up of deep valleys and high peaks, the Lake District

does not stand a chance. You're almost guaranteed a soaking in the

Lake District. On average, it rains on average 211 days in here! This

is the highest peak in England and there is a little village which has

the dubious honour of being Britain's wettest inhabited place!

It is home to the Pratt family. Inhabitants of this cottage at the

edge of the village, probably the wettest house in England! Where and

when did you find out that you lived in the wettest part of

England? We have always known. I was sat in geography the other day

reading a text book and it said, the wettest place, and I thought,

that is me! I felt really proud of myself! Why is it so wet? Befell

Straw the clouds down and you get the different temperatures and you

get the brain. Lots of it. What is the worst period you have ever had?

Probably the floods in 2009. This is flooding on a scale few could

have imagined. Everyone in Cumbria remembers the floods of November

2009. I remember it been raining for about 48 hours, torrential,

relentless. For three days, heavy rain fell on saturated ground,

causing many of the county's rivers to break through flood defences.

managed to keep it out of the house, just. On 20th November, Seathwaite

alone was pounded by 2.4 inches of rain in just 24 hours. An unwelcome

national record. We are OK, as long as we are here, we can protect the

house. But if we are not, then usually we can't get home.

water came with such speed and force that nothing could stop it.

He in Cockermouth, 30 miles north, and water levels reached 2.5 metres.

That is the main street. It is the river! As emergency services

struggled to rescue 500 people, PC Bill Barker tragically lost his

life when the bridge he was warning motorists not to cross was swept

away. Have you ever seen anything like this? Never, ever. It was

described by the Environment Agency as a once in a thousand-year

weather event. There has been reassurances that the worst has

passed. But four days ago, half the average rainfall for July fell on

parts of Cumbria in 24 hours, proving yet again that the power of

the great British weather should never be underestimated. It just

shows how serious rain can be. I want to show you a scene 30 miles

away from here. A little village called Great Corby. Imagine this

village, turning into a lake. Imagine going on a night out and

that is exactly what this family I am just about to introduce you with

were greeted to when they got 10. Good evening! You are just about

smiling! What happened? We were at the cinema and we got a frantic

phone call from the neighbours saying, come home quick, the house

is filling up with water, so we got in the car as soon as possible and

we were overtaken by two fire engines on the way and we joked

that they were probably going to our house and they were! What was

your initial reaction? I expected to turn up and tried to rescue my

shoes and make everything OK but of course, we were greeted with a

torrent of water, it was like a river in full spate, quite a

spectacle to behold. I bet. Your family are safe but you were

worried about a couple of things? Chickens? I was just a bit scared

that because my chickens were just in no pain, I was scared they might

not be able to breathe. Are they OK? Yes. The thank goodness. I am

looking at you, how many trousers have you got left? Three pairs of

trousers. It will probably be six or eight months until we get home.

Are you keeping this lot to get the? Yes, it is a bit of an

adventure! We are fine. I just want to show you a happy face down here.

Honour. He was this? Jessie. And it is a new one. The because sadly the

old one was washed away. Our thoughts are with you. Please take

care. I love it when people have a stiff upper lip in this weather

because you really need it when it starts pouring down. I will now

hand you over here. Nice to know! Nice cat! This

country have some of the most sophisticated whether tracking

technology in the world. The Met Office is seen as the creme de la

creme of forecasting but maybe they don't know everything. Maybe there

are some four-legged forecasters who are a bit better. Tom mine is

heading to the countryside to find out if an animal is better at his

job then he is. When it comes to forecasting the

weather, there is someone new in town. Cowls. Really, the myth that

they lie down before it rains has been around for centuries. I have

come to Abergavenny in Wales to settle this once and for all. As a

meteorologist, I am pretty sceptical when it comes to the

theory that cows can predict the weather. I am certainly more used

to satellite images and big, powerful computers of --. Yet these

farmers, Jim and Kate, are convinced I am wrong. Some people

say they pick up on the pressure beforehand which can affect their

digestive system and they lie down and chew the cud because they know

they will not be grazing for a while. Other people say they like

de because they want to keep a dry patch. I am not sure about that.

don't think so. I genuinely think they pick up on something. It is

time to break out the big guns. This is the weather station. It is

measuring all sorts of weather conditions. We will see if we can

find a link between the cow sitting down and any sort of weather, one

of which is rainfalls. They don't stand a chance! I will also be

measuring wind speed, temperatures, and air pressure. It is their

instincts verses there might of meteorological science. I can see

shower clouds heading our way but probably not for a while. I don't

think it is heading this way because they are standing up. We

will test your theory now. When they are spaced out like this, they

are quite sure doubt. The cloud is not coming year. A you reckon?

LAUGHTER. And they were right. It stayed dry, my state of-the-art

weather station also recorded little change in wind and pressure.

That rain cloud that you said was heading this way and the cows said

no, it wasn't. It is 1-0 to the cows. They predicted it will stay

dry. I have just been expecting the rain cloud to go over us. 5 hours

past. The stubborn animals were refusing to predict any rain. But

as soon as I am about to give up, One by one, the herd of cows makes

its move. I think it is pretty much all but one that are lying down.

Five minutes pass with no rain. The wind is picking up but really, all

I can see his little fluffy clouds and blue skies. I can't see any

reason for their predictions. Scientific forecasting looks set to

win this one. THUNDER. We are getting a real

It looks like they got up during the reign, walked to the trees to

try to shelter themselves but before it actually started to rain

they were sitting down. Why are they so accurate. The latest

scientific thinking is that cows are highly sensitive to local

variations in wind speed and air pressure if they feel the rain is

approaching. It seems they make the most of the car before the storm by

resting up and chewing the cud. -- calm before the storm. It is only a

very small shower. I think we had a rubber mm of rain. It was quite

heavy for a time. -- we had about a millimetre. The cows knew the rain

was coming whereas I failed to predict it, even though I had a

weather station to help me. It did show an increase in wind speed but

this was not enough to convince me it was going to get wet.

Clearly Major can sense something coming and that it will change

their behaviour -- nature can sense something. He did the question of

how reliable it is. You can say that about a weatherman?

Cows are not the only animals to know how to predict weather, here

to talk about t and our top three weather-predicted animals is our

guest. We discovered cows sit down when it

is about to raifpblt we know that animals have a very acute sense of

things. We possibly, once upon time might have been sensitive to it as

well. We know about the elephants before the tsunami, they all ran

into the hills. It is not a surprise, when you think about how

they communicate with elephants, they communicate with low freakcy

rumablities. Any rumablities created by tsunami or earthquake,

they see as out of the ordinary and try to get away from it. It is

logical in that sense. Do you have personal experience of that?

see it a lot in the field. We mentioned the cows earlier on,

flying around those cows heads, we expect to see swallows if the rain

is coming. They are feeding on the insects close to the ground, they

are also getting out of the way of that air movement going on,

disturbed air on the sky. They want to get near the boundary level.

Swallows flying low also an indication on the storm. They are

feeding on insect, insects, of course, that weird stagnant air

before a storm is perfect for flight and all sorts of things.

This is also something you would observe at this time of year, in

those sexy, sultry, sticky evenings, I'm getting carried away! That's a

good cue For the nuptial flights of ants. The mile high club for ants!

It is a big aerial orgy that occurs. Ants at each colliery need to meet,

the males and the future Queens need to meet. The triggers are

pressure, atmosphereic, they get it on, they go up and mate and fall

back down. What is the other one? The sharks are the recent one, a

recent study. Scientists tagged the sharks, before one of the

hurricanes that arrived she disappeared, she thought it was her

equipment, and before another hurricane hit they disappeared

again. If you are sensitive, if a storm hits, you are living in

washing machine, it makes sense to head to the deeper water. That is

the weird and wonderful world of animal, do you know animals and

pets of predicting the weather. Last week we asked you to send in

the cloud photo, we have been absolutely inundated with the

response. We received an astonishing 500 pictures, we can't

show you them all tonight. Everyone in the audience has a different one.

Let's have a look at them. I can see that's come Louis cloud, they

are fine weather clouds, they are the puffy one, like cotton wool

puffs. There is fine examples here. Who is this from? Any Nick flcher,

a photo of Whi - Fletcher, a photo of Whitby Abbey. This is a cumulous

one. Who is this one from? From John Short. Great photo, a typical

towering cloud, you can just see the rain underneath falling down.

Finally who is that one from? a photo of Brighton and Hove Albion

Football Club stadium. That is the base of a very well developed

cumulous cloud, that means rain is not too far away. Just a few

wonderful photo, stick around, in a few minutes time you will see me

fly inside one. Have you ever done that? I'm seldom out of a cloud.

All day Chris and I have worked on a prob ject, I will show you how to

make - project, I will show you how to make a cloud in a bottle. This

is science. First of all, we need a bottle like this, what is the main

constituent element of clouds? is moisture, water. That is the

moisture in the air. What we are needing, is the condensing nuke cli.

The word coagulate, I will ask you to light a match.

Condensation nuclei there. We have to put in changing pressure. I will

ask you to pump as if your life depends on it. Now look, high

pressure, no cloud at all, high pressure typically in the

summertime, no clouds at all, when it changes to low pressure, that,

look at that (applause) That my friend is a cloud. Nothing

underneath, that is cloud in there. But it is only in a bottle. A bit

later on ladies and gentlemen, and everybody at home, I will make the

biggest cloud, ever seen on British television, it is a big claim, I

have to say, It can't be done. need a few risks to be taken, it

might not happen in this atmosphere. It better be good. We saw her

showing off, you will see Carol 4,000 feet in the air, flying right

into the heart of a cumulus cloud. Carol, the weather presenter is

going where no weather presenter has been before We can see clouds

float across the skies. We can all too often feel the effect of the

huge amounts of water they contain. So, if they float, but are full of

water, that begs a question, how much does a cloud actually weigh?

Unfortunately there is only one answer to that.

We are going to fly above the clouds, isn't that dangerous?

depends what sort of cloud you fly through. By their very nature they

are formed by huge volumes of air, they can go up to heights of 50,000

feet, where you get huge problems of lack of oxygen, obviously and

very, very cold temperatures, which you can't withstand. The coldest I

have taken on is minus 60 degrees, my eyes froze shut and it gave me

frostbite on my face, to try to break a world record. You will be

all right though! You are having a laugh! As long as we survive the

cold, we will try attempt to fly through a cloud carrying one of

these. It measures temperature, relative humidity and pressure.

Here we have a GPS antenna, this atracts the position of the radius

on it. Dr Jeremy in the Met Office research team's theory is by

carrying it through the cloud wrecks can transmit GPS and

humidity data to the computer, which will enable him to weigh the

cloud. Pre-flight check, leg loops, your's, mine, helmet done up,

reserve is checked. Centralised weight. Take up slack, take up

slack. Hold very, very tight. Here we go. It is a fabulous view, it

makes you feel a wee bit dizzy. When it is near the surface, the

wind gets interference from the trees and the buildings and the

general friction from the ground. So that's why it is bumpy.

But there is plenty of time for more bumps. The wind is getting

stronger as we get obviously higher, much stronger up here. We have at

least a kilometer to travel to hit the clouds upwards. Now the view it

beautiful. It is spectacular, the sun is out, we can see some cumulus

clouds. You will never feel the power of the weather as strongly as

when you are flying in hand glider. 3,500 feet still climbing.

haven't been this high without an aeroplane behind me, I'm keeping my

eyes open, just, it is very scary. I'm still too scared to look down.

Oh gosh. Much colder now. You can feel it

against your cheeks and your skin. They have just hit the inversion

now. Usually as you hit altitude the air gets colder. Because of a

phenomenon called inversion, once you get to certain height in our

atmosphere, it actually starts to get warmer. This warm air stops our

clouds from rising. That's why you can often see a flat blanket of

cloud beneath you, when you look out of a plane window.

Can you see this beautiful cloud. We are up level with the clouds. Oh

my goodness. Wow, look at that. But now that we have gained enough

height, there is no time to admire the view. OK I'm going to release

now. What do I do? Relax. That's it, it's done. Oh Judy! It feels like

we're diving. It is all right. are running out of time to find a

cloud to weigh. That cloud looks like it is decaying to me. This one

We are completely in a white out situation now, all you can see is

clouds. It is very windy in this clouds. It is a huge one. You can

feel the clumps and bumps. When we were in the cloud, it didn't feel

moist. It did feel very windy. I felt quite scared in that cloud, to

be honest. It is always different and exciting, it is the best view

of the planet. I love how much you learn about the weather.

hopefully with all the data we have gathered for Dr Jeremy and his team.

We are nearly there. We are nearly at ground level, hanging on for

dear life, eyes closed. There we go, lovely. We're about to learn

something very new. That was brilliant. I am in awe of

you, that was brilliant. In a minute we will find out why this

summer's weather is so bad and how long it will go on for, I will look

forward to finding that out. Carol, that, extraordinary, you were up

5,000 feet in the air, with just a truss to hold you up. How did it

feel? It was amazing. Flying into that cloud, wow, everything is

completely white. It's cold, it's windy, and the smell of t I can

only equate it. You were in the middle of a cloud? When you open a

deep freeze door for example, and you get that waft of icey smell,

that was what it was like. Incredible. What I really want to

know, can you tell me how much did that cloud, it was a cumulus cloud,

how much did it weigh? What do you think a little cumulus cloud would

weigh. 200 weight! I don't know what that is. It was 137 tonnes.

Now that is the equivalent to 14 double-decker buses. And yet it

floats up in the air, much in the way that 14 double-decker buses

don't. I didn't see any dubl decker buses while I was up there.

Incredible, exciting, informative and brave. Chris, beat that.

taking my hat off to you, Carol, fantastic, well done. Pretty much

loads of cloud at the moment. Thank you very much everybody who has

been sending in photo, look at the map, already a little image

developing here. Congratulations to Inverness up here. We have a

photograph of the weather up here, that is the furthest north, I can

tell you we have the furthest south. This is from Olivia, wander, from

the Isle of Scilly, it is all the way down here. Look at that, it

looks really lovely down here. And Carol, Kirkwood, talking about

clouds. I have some stonkers here, the Isle of Man from Colin, it is

looking rather nice, nice and sunny. One of the few place that is saw

sunshine today. Another one from Richard in Cumbria. As we know, we

have had a lot of rain today. And that shows rather a lot of stratus

there. You wanted a fundamental cloud, I have one. Good - A funnel

cloud, I have one. This is from Carol from Leamington Spa, she has

shown me a funnel cloud. Thank you very much. We want loads of stories,

weather stories, plus, we have been talking about songs, haven't we.

have. Loads about rain, loads about sun, but I can't think of any about

cloud. Fortunately I can, Bryan Adams, Cloud Number 9. You have 20

minutes goat your photos to us, take a picture - to get your photos

to us, take a picture where you are, and send it to us on the website.

Including your name, town and postcode.

I can't believe you brought Bryan Adams into the show. Still to come:

Carol puts us in the picture with her essential guide to the clouds.

We step back in time to see how weather took centre stage on our

teles. In about 20 minutes time, Chris has

been boasting about it all night, but will he make the biggest cloud

ever seen on British TV, stay tuned in to find out. We are slap bang in

the middle of July, huge parts of the country are grey and miserable

and soaking wet. Why on earth do our summers always end up like this,

it is a burning question, one with a very soggy answer, let the truth

be revealed. The great British summer. Long lazy

days on the beach, sun soaked picnic, and week after week of warm,

wonderful weather. If you think all that's too good to

be true, that's because it is. Statistics prove that the British

summer is a bit of a washout. In June, July and August, on

average, it rains 43 days out of 92. That's just 12 days less than in

the winter months. In fact, in the summer, it rains nearly every other

day. To begin explaining why parts of the UK are wet for the summer,

I'm afraid I will have to get my kit off. In the summer we

experience much higher temperature, sometimes sweltering, that means

the air around us is much hotter, and warm air holds much more

moisture than cold air. And when air gets warmer, the molecules in

had the air start moving more quickly. Which means the air itself

takes up more space. And bigger air means bigger clouds in the summer,

they can be a whopping 10,000 feet taller than in the winter, and

bigger, thicker clouds, mean, yeah, you've guessed it, more rain.

I think traditionally we try to look back at the summer when we

were children and have kind of fond memories of how summers were

traditionally dry and warm and sunny. If you look at climbology,

that almost tells the truth that we don't get very many, over the last

few years of dry, warm summers. is not just the amount of rain that

ruins all the weeks off school. nature of rainfall when it is

warmer, is the surface tension of the rain drop is slightly less.

They can form into slightly bigger rain drops than they would if the

weather was colder. If you are ever out in a thundery shower in the

summer, you will notice the rain drops bigger than in the winter

time. So, more cloud, full of more rain, and now that rain is even

bigger than normal. How could it possibly get any worse. If you look

back historically over the last 100 years, we have something called the

European monsoon. It turns out some meteorologists have always

considered our summers to be a season that is fairly wet. This is

normally what we call bad weather. The European monsoon brings that

rain in earlier to bring the monsoon June weather. As

meteorologists we call it the return of the westerlies.

prevailing winds from the west can go quiet up to May, and come the

start of what should be the summer, they are ready to return. We get to

the end of spring, things start to dry up, as we get into June, we get

the return of the westerlies. Bring anything wind and rain off the

Atlantic. And we start to see a prolonged spell of more unsettled

weather. Temperatures start to drop away as well.

Yes, but that doesn't stop us Brits from being famously optimistic and

planning 645 music festivals, 10,000 garden feths, millions of

barbecues and millions of sporting events in the shadow of the

European monsoon. Wimbledon is one of the classic events in the summer

that always seems to be affected by short, and sometimes very long

showers. 17 Wimbledon championships over the years have had to be

extended to a third week because of the weather. And only five of them,

in history, have been rain-free. soon as it rained during Wimbledon,

you know, all the players would say, point to me and say how bad is the

weather here and it always rains. So I felt like I had to take

responsibility for a lot of things, when it was the weather I knew I

was up against it. In 2001, rain is said to have

wrecked the prospects of Britain's number one. Poised to become the

first man to reach the Wimbledon final in 50 years, after three

frustrating days with three days of interruptions it was Ivanisevic who

went through to the final and won the championship. In an ideal world

you wouldn't want interruption, but it is a lot easier for us, we go

straight back to court and straight to locker room and plenty of places

to go, if you have 15,000 in the crowd it is much harder for them to

find shelter and keep themselves entertained.

Don't you worry about that, Tim, a lifetime of soggy Wimbledons is has

taught us all to be prepared. Stand up, plee, and show me what's

behind you. This is - please, and show me what's behind you. This is

what you need in Britain, plastic bags on chairs, because they are

soaking wet. That combined with our endless optimisim, means we can

always enjoy the great British summer, for what it really is, and

this year that's wet. I have to say it has been an

absolute scourger today. You know, this is what British summer is all

about, isn't it, plucky spirit, yes, come on.

Yes, we Brits enjoy the good, hearty summer, don't we in Britain.

But I have to say, I have been to all the great sporting events this

summer, and there's a common theme, first of all, Wimbledon, what was

the weather like, what did we have? Rain! Royal Ascot? Rain. What about

the Open Championship? Rain! Queen's championship? Rain! Who has

had enough of the rain? Of course, later on we will have the legendary

Bill Giles coming up, he has the answer to the million dollar

question, is this rain ever going to end, and will we have a barbecue

summer. We don't like the clouds and rain. But I know a group of

people who absolutely love it. Let me introduce you to them, they are

the cloud appreciation society! A big round of applause.

We will have a look at them in a minute. First of all, you are the

governor of this society. What is it that you love about these

clouds? Clouds, don't let the rain clouds give the others a bad name.

Clouds are one of the nature's most beautiful displays, every day we

have a new, natural, abstract art to look up at. If it was blue skies

every day, relentlessly, day after day after day, life would be dull.

This gang, members there, they have rather extraordinary implements on

their face, what are these? These were sent into us by a student of

the Royal College of Art, and they are sky glass, so you sort of wear

them and you can see the clouds, it needs a slightly different cloud

from today, you can see the clouds above you as you walk around. And

we now wear nothing but these glasses. Because it is an enormous

effort to do that, isn't it? Very, very big effort for us. It keeps

the rain off your moustache. more final question for you, I will

put my own in, no laughing. suits you. Name me your favourite

cloud? It has to be the Lenticularus cloud. Noctolucuis.

Come clues. Are we confused. Don't panic,

because Carol Kirkwood is just about to explain it all.

Above our heads, clouds inhabit the ten miles of atmosphere between us

and space. They come in all shapes and sizes. For centuries they have

baffled scientists and have always inspired artists. "I warnedered as

lonely as a cloud that floats on high on vales and hails."

That is one of the most famous opening lines in the English

largeage, Wordsworth was a fan of clouds. I hope to see wonderful

examples of appreciation of clouds in the national gallery. I'm no art

critic, this is a weather forecaster's guide to the old

masters. Bacchaus is offering himself as husband material, he's

offering her the sky. Frankly, if I were her I would say no, first of

all,'s not much of a looker, would you - he's not much of a looker,

would you like the sky? A bit cheap look to go me. The sky doesn't look

real, the blues are beautiful, the whites and yellows are beautiful,

but it is not very realistic. Clouds were a complete mystery to

these artists and those before them. All they were sure of is what they

saw in the sky is the land of the gods, and they were depicting

heaven. Look at the cloud the Cher rubs are

sitting on, it is like a storm cloud, it is black and oppressive.

It doesn't work because there is far too much fair weather cloud

around it. Rubens kpwaim came back to this cloud - came back to this

painting many times, I think he had the eye on the ladies rather than

the clouds in the background. Artists were left to their own

devices for another 200 years, in 1803 everything changed. A chemist

amure meteorologists from Tottenham North London, named Luke Howard,

wrote an essay on the formation of clouds, and caught to name the

formations in Latin. He identified three basic types of cloud, and

most of the other clouds are related to them in some shape or

Cumulus. Cumulus means puffy like in appearance. Stratus were

characterised by horizontal learning, and cirrus were the high,

whizzpy clouds. This allowed for further sub speeies of cloud, in

the classification system similar to that used for plants and animals.

Howard's was a brilliant and simple system that caught on quickly

around the world. Prompting artists and scientists alike to take a

fresh look at clouds. What inspired the likes of the romantic poet

Shelley and others, was that Howard had managed to map the land of the

gods, and a fear mortal could now describe and paint heaven with a

new confidence. Here is one artist that puts that

new understanding to good effect? Our very own John Constable. John

Constable was an artist keen to dedicate his life to capturing the

truth of nature. Look at the clouds it looks like

they have been building up during the course of the day, they have

cumulus, they are still developing, we could yet see a shower before

the day is through. It is being said that thanks to Howard's

inspiration and dedication, Constable's skies are so realistic

that they not only summarise the weather of the last few hours, but

also provide a forecast of the weather to come. Look at those

clouds, how realistic are they? We have the fair weather cumulus

bubbling up through the day, you can see the fairweather, we have

the blue sky coming through them. Look in the corner of the painting,

something a wee bit more oppressive coming on here, we have the darker

clouds, they may produce a shower, they may not. This is something

that we are all familiar with, that we have seen on many occasions in

the British Isles. This is just perfect. And that is

just the tip of the iceberg, now look at that view looking down

towards Patterdale, it is beautiful. In and out of cloud all day, and it

is still rainy here. Thank you for all the brilliant pictures you have

sent us in this week, helping us show how hugely varied the clouds

around the UK are. We have a small selection of them here. This is

taken in Wick in the north of Scotland, this is angelatus, look

how spectacular it is, they are formed because of shaering winds,

they have a wave-like look about them, they resemble the sea. This

is from bash ba, from Hertfordshire, they are called momatis, also known

as the mama cloud. They have been made by the low morning sun, and

formed by descending air, many think they look like cows' udders,

it is gorgeous. Another one too from Alan, this one was taken in

Elgin in Scotland, these are noctolucent clouds, rare clouds

seen in mid-summer nights, the highest clouds in the sky, with an

estimated height of 45-52 miles. Next week the subject is the sun.

So please send us any beautiful shots you have of sunsets and sunny

weather, ar for tips for weather photography, - and for tips for

weather photography head to the website where you will find more

pictures. I love sunset and sunrise pictures. What about you?

I'm a fool for a sunset. Earlier on tonight we asked if your pets have

any special way of knowing if it is going to rain. Loads of you have

been in touch. We have had an e- mail from Abbey, who says she can

tell it will snow because of magpie, they flock to the highest trees and

jump between the branches. Up to 12 magpies do that.

She said she has seen this happen many times and the snow always

follows 12-48 hours later. Sally says she phones fell ponies and one

time in showery - she owns fell ponies, one time in showery weather

her pony would not go into a certain field and over a certain

fence and the next day she found her bull dead in there. She thinks

the pony saved their lives. The anniversary of the first weather

forecast published in the Times newspaper in 1860 is coming round.

You might think weather is a whippersnapper considering it has

been around for 57 years, during that time it has changed

considerably on the television. don't care what the weatherman says.

The BBC has been broadcasting the weather for nearly 60 years. What

we have tried to do is bring the weather to life, to tell the story,

so that people have an impression of what we think is likely to

happen. They have developed their own unique styles, from Michael

Fish's colourful wardrobe, to Bill Giles's customary wink. The style

of forecasting during that time has been distinctly changable. Let's

step back in time. The first televised weather

forecast was in January 1954. When the broadcasts were rather more

formal affairs, compared to today's colourful bunch. Hello there, if

you got wet today, you were decidedly unlucky. I certainly

remember watching the weather forecasts in black and white. Not

just black and white, but civil servants doing them. Let's go

across and take a look at today's chart. They probably didn't

volunteer to go on television, he was a civil servant and doing a Met

briefing. Things got a bit more lively in

1967 with the introduction of colour television. With that the

BBC brought in a new range of weather symbols which were based on

international standards. But they weren't that easy to understand.

That, for instance, that blue triangle means shower. That, rather

appropriate today, means a thunderstorm. And that, rarely used,

means sunshine. 1974, and the first-ever female forecaster,

Barbara Edwards, burst own to our screens. Outbreaks of sleet and

Snowndown the country. She blazed trail for many others who have

followed. Then the BBC introduced magnetic rubber symbols. We will be

losing the sunshine in the southern and eastern parts. Viewers watched

with awe as for the first time the forecaster could show the weather

change anything front of our eyes. The magnetic symbols we had

transformed the weather forecast. These BEEP things! Let's do it

again. Then new toys to play with, computers. Brighter weather getting

into the North West of Scotland here.

We got a live feed from the Met Office computer in Bracknell,

straight into the computer system and on to the air. Overnight you

had so many wonderful things you wanted to show, such as radar,

satellite pictures, you wanted to show everybody everything, and you

didn't have the time to do it. was followed by the disappointingly

low tech blue and green screens, some found it really tricky.

Wfrpblgts he had to learn the whole technique, of looking at a screen

and there is nothing there. Behind you when you are presenting the

weather you can't see anything. When you turn around and run your

finger down say a weather front, and you can't see it behind you but

in the screen in front, when you hit it bang on the nose it is like,

result. Then in 2005, in a deeply

controversial move, the forecasts were updated with brand, spanking

new 3-D graphic, but the public didn't like it. We had so many

complaints about it, the angle of the map was such that the south

coast of England looked enormous, but Scotland looked tiny at the top.

That was addressed. Despite this half decade of progress, there is

only one thing the viewers are interested in, that is whether or

not the forecasters have it right. One man who was at the Vanguard of

meteorology in this country is with us tonight, ladies and gentlemen, a

warm welcome Mr Bill Giles. Lovely to have you here. On St Swithers

day it will swain if it rains then, that was on Friday, it rained, so

it is raining today. Are we in for another 38 days of rain? No, no, no.

I'm not going to write off the summer at all. I can promise you

fine weather. Not wall-to-wall sunshine, but there will be some

good periods, one at the end of this week, for instance. One at the

end of next month, into September. So some rain inbetween, but don't

write it off. This is a nice long range forecast from you. The Met

Office steers clear of these, I think it was the summer of 2009

they said would be the barbecue summer. They should never have done

that, that was a complete mistake. You don't feed journalists lines

like that. It was big PR mistake. OK, but are you prepared to give us

a long range forecast, do you think we will have some sort of decent

summer? I think so. We will not give you wall-to-wall sunshine, but

you will get these periods of four or five days, when the warm

sunshine comes up, then you are back to the rain again. Last week

we had your old friend Michael Fish on the programme, we had to discuss

the storm of 1987. The best person to ask was Bill Giles, ask him next

week, he was on duty. What do you make of that? I will let you into a

secret, mind, as long as you don't tell anybody. It is just you and me

here? I did the 9.25 broadcast on that evening, I said it will be

breezy up the channel. And it was very breezy up the channel. But I

have let old puffer fish. Why do you call him that? Didn't you see

him last week, he has blown up out of all proportion. He's carrying

exec timber, I will grant you that. - excess timber, I will grant you

that. Thank you very much. You have sent in snaps of the weather over

the last hour, we will reveal the results to the nation.

Just take a look at our map. A big round of applause.

Never before have we covered T I have an apology to make. Do you

remember I showed you a funnel cloud from Leamington Spa and I

said it was live. Carol sent it in this afternoon, Carol thank you,

but sadly, it has to go. What I'm excited about. You know we have to

get into the Highlands, we are in the Highlands. Then I thought,

could we get in to the Orkney islands, and then I thought in the

Shetland islands, we have, thank you very much.

They were well worth waiting for, look at this map, it does show what

has happened this evening. There has been a lot of cloud around,

theres have pockets of sunshine, you can see - there have been

pockets of sunshine, in Lancashire there has been sunshine, sunshine

in the south as well. But look at that, some showers, and as we have

been saying, some fundamental clouds as well. I have to tell you,

we have just had an e-mail from the Met Office, never before has there

been weather followed minute by minute followed on national

television by so many people. The Met Office, it is official, are

very excited. Hopefully that means a bonus for me? Dream on Kirkwood.

Thank you very much for sending your photographs in tonight. Check

out your website where some of them will be proudly displayed in the

gallery. We are almost at the end of the

shower, what is the weather looking like for tomorrow? Not as bad as

today, tomorrow sunshine, cloud around, and one or two showers, the

showers mostly in the south. So it could catch Lords. Very good. So

ladies and gentlemen, the moment is here for Chris to show us his

incredible cloud machine. Concentrate, this is very serious,

get your safety equipment on. The white coat and gloves. While you

are getting the gloves on, I will take the lid off my magic tricks.

Just imagine, I'm going to try to recreate what is happening up there.

Do you remember Kirkwood what is what is it up there? Cloudy, cold,

wet. Kirkwood put that on, I didn't

think that was the most difficult part of it. I will recreate the

cloud using liquid nitrogen using minus 197 degrees. We are going to

fill our magic tricky box, as you can see a little bit of cloud being

made with the atmosphere already. That is not it is it? It is still

looking good. Obviously we have lots of what up

there? Moisture. You can see it in there, I want to increase the

amount of moisture with some hot water. We should stand back.

water, pressure, moisture, we have Plousplous Chris, you madman.