Severe winter..is it all hype?

[ianess]

Does anyone else think that all this talk about a severe winter is just scaremongering tactics and an excuse for creating fear and alarm over rising prices and fuel shortages?
Where I live in Scotland we've hardly had a winter so far.

[andyjevs]

We have at least another 3 months where things can get nasty.
I do believe the media blew it all out of proportion because stories like this sell newspapers just like the scorching summer we were supposed to have had last year.
I still feel we will get a cold snap and plenty of snow....even down here on the south coast but the cold will only last one week....two at most.

[Robinia]

They love to hype it up I think but as andy says there's time yet for some bad weather. I think though that once the nights are getting lighter it never seems quite so bad as having severe weather during the darkest weeks. It's my sister's birthday in a couple of weeks & it's often been nasty or snowed around that time or just after. Keep your vest on ianess!

[andy-hughes]

The reason for the obsession with the weather is rolling news programmes.

Around Christmas, there is very little going on, Parliament are out, there's nothing really going on, but the news channels have to have something 'important' to waffle on about - what better than the weather?

It is scare mongering - apart from a few areas which are often affected anyway, the majority of the country gets away with very little disruption, but the new channels always have a reporter standing knee deep in a drift saying how awful it all is.

It's winter! We need to get used to it! Shock horror probe, this just in ... Snow happens!

[logman]

Well I think the weather forcasters stand to get more flack if they underestimate the severety of bad weather, rather then play it down, usually there is always one region that seems to get more than its fair share anyway, so they can always refer to that.

I've seen plenty of plants sprouting up in the garden that i would'nt expect to see for another month or more, but yeah there is still plenty of time between now to mid march when things can take a turn for the worst. If they get it wrong again you wont hear me complain..

[andy-hughes]

Hate be pedantic ZebUK, but BBC staff aren't allowed to say things like that - unless they are Jeremy Paxman - what Mr Fish said was "There's been a phone call from a lady worried that thereis a hurricane on the way ... don't worry, there isn't ..."

But you're right, Mr Fish was, and doubtless still is, the epitome of suave - the only man who can wear made-to-measure suits and still look like a badly packed sandbag in them!

[jno]

if I may politely disagree with just about everyone... the severe winter warning came out well before Christmas. I forget what it was based on, but given that all indicators seem equally unreliable, it sounded plausible enough at the time, and may still come true. And once the warning had been given, what were the government and media supposed to do? Say it was all rubbish and ignore it? I can imagine the cries of outrage, if lots of people died in severe weather, that they'd failed in their duty to keep the public alerted. It's up to meteorologists to tell us what might happen, as best they can. It's up to us to do what we want about it.

[Hgg]

Not so much scaremongering - more like clever marketing on the part of the MET Office prior to privatisation. How many free newspaper column inches did they get? If you had to pay for that sort of publicity it would cost a fortune.

If it does turn out to be a severe winter - everyone praises the MET Office for getting it right. If it is a milder than predicted winter - everyone is still happy and the prediction is soon forgotten. It's a win-win situation.

However, the danger comes when we get similar predictions each year and eventually we become immune to them and lose faith in 'weather forecasting' in general. It's true, winters have been milder in recent years and one could argue we are due for a nasty one - but probability percentages like 67% are meaningless.

[emmagleb]

The government's 'summer heat wave' appeared this year, didn't it....?

Part of it is 'specialists' having a theory, then the government and media blowing everything out of proportion. I find it funny now the government spent millions of tax-payers' money on "making sure people were aware of the risks during the imminant summer heat wave", which never materialise, and then got away with it!!!

[kjn2]

I think its down to the City Gents who make a nice lot of money out of buying and selling oil/gas etc . buy at a low price beef up via media then offload.How many times have we read during the past 12 months articles in the paper re our american friends, in the summer it was announced that as the holiday period approached there was a need for more fuel due to the gas guzzlers hitting the highways, then severe winter predictions were announced which resulted in another price increase Why cant we just wait until these things happen before making price increases as we all know they rarely come down when these thing do not happen.

[jas1002]

my brother was born mid March and it was snowing so ther is still time, but I aggree nothing seems so bad if it's light outside.

[ianess]

jas1002.......very true....it's a miserable time of year, and yes I agree that February especially is usually the worst month of the winter, but I still think it's all been hyped up to make money for some accountant somewhere. I reckon that winters [ in fact all seasons] are about 3*C warmer than when I was a kid.
Roll on the Equinox and the start of Spring!