Tag Archives: BBC weather

Trolling the weather

By Mary Reid | Fri 29th July 2022 - 4:00 pm

The BBC tells us that their weather forecasters have been trolled about their heatwave reports.

Weather forecasters report unprecedented trolling during UK heatwave coverage https://t.co/W2HkB8ugWU

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) July 29, 2022

Tweets aimed at BBC Weather and its presenters featured personal insults and messages such as “it’s just summer” – many described advice on how to stay cool as pandering to the “woke-brigade” or for “snowflakes”.

Other tweets accused the Met Office and the BBC of spreading “alarmism” and “hysteria”, telling both to “stop scaremongering”.

Hundreds of people have also shared their experiences of the 1976 heatwave on social media, with many making the false suggestion that this month’s heatwave was “no different”.

…

BBC meteorologist Tomasz Schafernaker said: “What frustrates me most is when I’m accused of twisting the truth. As meteorologists, we report facts. There is no conspiracy.”

I have huge sympathy for the forecasters who are doing their job with great professionalism. Rather than scaremongering, if anything, they are very restrained in their comments, and rarely explain to viewers directly about the reasons for extreme weather.