Saving Face

Yet getting it wrong, is what the Met Office is being accused of.  Apparently while it saw fit to advise Cabinet Office of the impending harsh winter in October, it didn't go public with it's suspicions until December.

The BBC’s environment analyst said the Met Office did not publish its warning of bad weather because of the embarrassment caused by its mistaken prediction that Britain would bask in a "barbecue summer" in 2009.  He wrote in the Radio Times:

"The truth is it did suspect we were in for an exceptionally cold early winter, and told the Cabinet Office so in October.  But we weren’t let in on the secret."

The Met Office stopped issuing seasonal forecasts to the public in March last year, and now provides a rolling forecast for the next 30 days on its website.  A spokesburd for the agency said:

"We withdrew from making public our forecasts for the season because the public said they didn’t want them."

I wonder how they know the public doesn't want seasonal forecasts.  I'm sure they would- if they were accurate.