New BBC Weather Graphics

[Dan Gould]

From today's New York Times:

London Journal

BBC's New Weather Report: Look, It's Raining Brickbats

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By SARAH LYALL

Published: June 24, 2005

LONDON, June 23 - If Peter Gibbs has learned one thing in his years as a weather presenter for the British Broadcasting Corporation, it is that the inherent delightfulness of sunshine is by no means a matter of faith here in the land of rain and gloom.

When Britons cannot agree on what makes a "nice day," it is no surprise to Peter Gibbs, a BBC weatherman, that the new weather graphics do not please everyone. Fishermen are among those who are unhappy.

"We have to be very careful not to make value judgments," Mr. Gibbs said. "If we say, 'It's going to be a fantastically nice sunny day' " - here he mimicked a gung-ho American-style weatherman, perhaps the sort whose on-screen persona might include sunglasses and a "fun" T-shirt - "then we will get letters from people who don't like the sunshine, or who have asthma, or who need the rain because their gardens are dying."

It has been no surprise to the calmly authoritative Mr. Gibbs, 47, then, that the BBC's redesign of its weather graphics last month has proved almost as controversial as the question of what a "nice day" in Britain actually is, in terms of weather. Although the company's market research showed that viewers found the old system boring and confusing, the cinematic new design has drawn more than 4,000 official viewer complaints and been denounced in the House of Lords, the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament. In Wales, Peter Black, a member of the Welsh Assembly, complained that the map showed "a cavalier disregard for Swansea." Other people said that the new graphics made them feel queasy, as if they were going to throw up.

The changes cost about £1 million ($1.8 million) and were indeed radical, if such a word can be used in connection with a daily weather report. Out went the old static map of the British isles, dotted as it was with cute, straightforward little glyphs representing sun, rain and clouds.

In came a constantly moving picture that swoops the viewer down panoramically over a 3-D map in which sun and clouds are represented not by pictures of sun and clouds, but by patches of color: dark gray for cloudy sections, light gray for sunny ones. The rain is not static anymore, either, but appears to beat down on the ground, or at least on the map.

For the presenters - 23 professional meteorologists who are in fact civil servants, drawing government paychecks - the new-style broadcast is a liberation, and not just because the outdated software on the old one was wearing out and prone to breaking down in an alarming fashion in midbroadcast.

"This is much more detailed, much more subtle, and it means you can see the progression of weather throughout the day," Mr. Gibbs said. "Whereas previously it was like a slide show, now it's more like giving a running commentary."

But far from being thrilled at the changes, many viewers reacted as if their favorite kind of chocolate had just been pulled from the market, denouncing the new broadcasts as variously confusing, unattractive, simplistic, London-centric and seasickness-inducing. Fishermen said the BBC had failed them by leaving out crucial information about barometric pressure; organizations representing the partially sighted and owners of black-and-white television sets said the BBC had failed them, too, by making the sunny bits on the map virtually undistinguishable from the cloudy ones.

In the House of Commons, a Scottish legislator, Angus MacNeil, attacked the changes as rude and insulting to Scotland, saying the new map made it look disproportionately puny (the BBC has since made it bigger again).

In the House of Lords, Lord Pilkington, a Tory peer, said he was not pleased at all. "For the past two nights a gale has been blowing outside my house, but I did not hear anything about it on the weather forecast," he said. ("Believe it or not, ministers are not responsible for weather forecasts," responded Lord Davies of Oldham, speaking on behalf of the government.)

Meanwhile, the BBC Web site was flooded with complaints. "I had no idea rain was on the way," said one viewer, Neil MacLean. From Stratford-Upon-Avon, Ann Walker wrote, "My husband, who suffers from vertigo, found that the constant movement made him feel quite dizzy."

And Andy Moore was moved to remark that he felt "totally lost" without the old barometric pressure charts.

The complaints proved several things. First, despite the explosion of rival cable and digital channels, Britons still regard the BBC as their in-house broadcaster and all-purpose punching bag, a proprietary institution in which everyone has a stake and an opinion, and in which even the smallest change is occasion for national browbeating and self-castigation.

Second, there is no danger any time soon of the weather relinquishing its special status as Britain's universal ice-breaker, conversation-filler, and smoother-over-of-awkward-moments. In this way, the new reports are useful because they give people something weather-related to talk about, other than whether or not it is likely to rain (a pointless topic, because it usually is).

The BBC has decided to ride out the storm, pointing out that early research shows that some 69 percent of the audience either prefers the new system, likes it as much as the old one or doesn't care, leaving just 31 percent disgruntled.

"It's such a radical change that people need time to adjust to it and understand it," Mr. Gibbs said. "We could have played it safe, but the fact that people have noticed at all means they're watching, and they care."

I found this rather amusing, so I wonder what our British friends think of the Beeb's changes?

Its funny to compare this seemingly modest leap into modern technology with the way local stations in the States compete on their weather reporting prowess with Doppler 6000-this and Doppler whatever-that, and 3-D representations of radar ... never occured to me it might trigger motion sickness in viewers!

[Jazzmoose]

Frankly, I'm with the Brits on this. I HATE the newer animated weather maps they use now. Less information, more confusing. But I guess I'm just getting old...

[Peter Johnson]

I agree. Loved when they had those great B&W satellite photographs; _they_ actually made sense, not dumbed down at all.

Those were the days (and I'm only 34 (tomorrow!))

[Indestructible!]

From today's New York Times:

In Wales, Peter Black, a member of the Welsh Assembly, complained that the map showed "a cavalier disregard for Swansea."

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Cheers,

Shane