The British love to talk about the weather. Whether they are at a business networking event, a wedding or a dinner party, it is the one subject which can be discussed by everyone without fear of offence. Our changeable and changing climate makes the weather a never-ending source of interest, and for certain sectors such as agriculture, logistics and tourism, getting an accurate forecast can have a significant effect on business planning. Adviser spoke to Chris Bell , Chief Communications Officer at Weatherquest, a weather forecasting and analysis business based in Norwich.
Readers with long memories might remember the days of television weather forecasting when charts were covered with isobars and complicated measurements. Can you say how forecasting has changed over the last twenty or so years? “In the early days the weather charts were drawn by hand, following data that was received by phone and fax from local Met Office weather centres. The whole process was enormously time consuming, and only a small number of forecasts could be produced each day, which were then sent out by hand. As data systems and satellite technology developed, meteorologists were able to monitor changing conditions much more closely, which meant they could respond faster and with a much higher level of accuracy. The computer models that we now use are populated with specialist forecasting products, and the information is then analysed by our data managers to create reports which are tailored to the end user. So, for example, a weather forecast to be published the next day in The Times will be very different to a sugar beet farmer who needs to know the best time to get the beets out of the ground.”
How did Weatherquest come about? “The big change in our industry came in 2000 when the Met Office closed many of their local weather centres, including the one in Norwich. My colleague Jim Bacon (now retired) saw an opportunity to create a business which used his extensive meteorological expertise to help local businesses who relied on having weather data. He saw that helping businesses predict forthcoming conditions might help to reduce their operational and strategic risks and enable them to function more efficiently. Jim and his colleague Steve Western along with Steve Dorling, a faculty member of the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, founded Weatherquest in 2001, and I joined in 2005. In the early days we focused on agriculture and media, reading out forecasts to over 75% of local BBC radio stations and appearing on local news programmes like BBC Look East. As the business developed, we expanded our coverage to include aviation, transport, water utilities and wind farms and we now also look after data requests from legal, financial and environmental services.”
Why would a professional business need weather reports? “Financial and legal advisers may be dealing with clients who have made statements or claims relating to weather conditions, such as high winds causing structural damage which has resulted in an insurance claim. Legal firms may also need retrospective data to support personal injury claims, traffic accidents and so on. Additionally, we work with a number of energy firms who include a growing number in the renewable energy sector, for example wind farms. You can imagine that if a business is planning to charter a helicopter to fly their staff out to a gas terminal in the North Sea they want to make sure that the wind conditions are going to allow it to fly out and return without undue risk to the pilot or passengers.”
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