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SALT LAKE CITY — A BBC weatherman endured a storm of complaints over the weekend after ignoring computer weather models that called for rain — in England — and predicting sunny skies for a holiday weekend.
Instead, the opposite happened, with thunderstorms developing over the English channel Sunday morning and drenching the country beginning at 11 a.m., according to The Telegraph.
Public outcry led BBC weatherman Philip Avery to apologize on air by 1:30 p.m.
"There are thunderstorms there which were not represented in our forecasts over the past couple of days or so," he said. "I have to say we can't even blame the computers; the computers actually wanted to put those thunderstorms in there but forecasters thought that it wasn't supported by enough evidence and so we went for the dry, hot option.
"Having said that, apologies to anyone who has had their next few hours ruined."
Rain is typically no surprise to Britons. Nearly all of the country sees rain at least 150 days out of the year, with about half of the country seeing rain at least 200 days.
Forecasts are known to be more unreliable the further out they try to predict, but most meteorologists adjust forecasts for increased accuracy as days pass.
A 2008 analysis found that weather forecasts are usually accurate within 3 degrees when predicting the next day's weather, the Globe and Mail reports. The last day of the 7-day forecast averages 6 degrees off.
