Metra v Met Office

It would seem that the Met Office cannot rest assured that the BBC will automatically renew its contract this year; according, at least, to a source in the Corporation. Apparently most of the big supermarkets - like Tesco - use a subsidiary company of Metra, New Zealand's national weather forecaster.

Personally, I take many of the Met Office's forecasts with a pinch of salt. In fairness, though, they do tend to get the temperatures largely accurate. Whether there's going to be rain or shine, though, leaves "room for improvement". Despite this, and given their sophisticated computers and monitoring equipment, it's hard to fathom why they cannot do better.

I imagine our British climate is extremely difficult to forecast with accuracy. It seems to vary so much, from the extreme north of Scotland to the south of Kent.

If the big supermarkets trust Weather Commerce, Metra's UK subsidiary, I think the BBC should, perhaps, consider them too. Why not? They might just be more reliable, in a meteorological sense!

Interestingly, Weather Commerce produce a two-day forecast for post-codes in Northern Ireland: Enter your post-code here.