4 Today programme is another BBC institution and I was a little in awe.
‘Here we go,’ said Chris, settling me into the small studio, where a bank of televisions were broadcasting various news channels. In the middle was a huge digital clock. It read 5.13 a.m.
‘This is Matt, our producer,’ he introduced me. ‘And this is Stav.’ Stavros Danaos, one of the BBC’s weather forecasters, sat at the microphone clutching his notes and the all-important forecast.
5.20. ‘A minute to broadcast,’ announced Matt through the headphones.
Stav cleared his throat as Chris introduced the Shipping Forecast.
There is not one individual who is the voice of the Shipping Forecast. I knew that there must be more than one because I had heard both male and female presenters reading the forecast, but I was surprised to hear that there are as many as twenty who rotate.
The complexities of the data to non-mariners mean that new presenters must take a special Shipping Forecast course to learn the significance of each piece of information, ensuring the correct intonation. ‘You must learn not to say “Gale 8” with a rising intonation on the 8,’ explained Chris as Stav prepared to deliver his missive to mariners across the British Isles, ‘On the Beaufort Scale, 8 is a gale, therefore it’s important not to read it with a raised intonation, but to lift the 9 afterwards.’
Stav’s smooth voice delivered the information with confidence and authority. It was strange hearing it produced in such neutral surroundings, given all the years of listening to it while being buffeted by gales.
And now the shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 0505 UTC* on Monday 3rd July 2017.
There are warnings of gales in Trafalgar.
The general synopsis at midnight:
High Scandinavia 1038, expected Norwegian Sea 1036 by 0600 tomorrow. Low 200 miles west of Sole 994 expected Fitzroy 1001 by same time.
The area forecasts for the next 24 hours:
Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire: Variable 3 or 4. Slight, occasionally moderate. Fair. Good.
South Forties: Easterly or northeasterly 5 to 7. Moderate or rough. Showers. Good.
North Forties, Cromarty: Easterly 4 or 5, occasionally 6 in south. Moderate, occasionally rough. Showers. Good.
Forth, Tyne, Dogger: East or northeast 5 or 6. Moderate. Showers. Good.
Fisher: Northeast 5 to 7. Moderate or rough. Showers. Good.
German Bight, Humber: Northeast 5 or 6. Slight or moderate. Showers. Good.
Thames, Dover: Mainly east or northeast 4 or 5, occasionally 6 later. Slight or moderate. Showers. Moderate or good.
Wight, Portland: East 4 or 5, occasionally 6 later. Slight or moderate. Showers. Good.
Plymouth: East or southeast 5 to 7. Moderate or rough. Showers. Good.
Biscay: Southeast backing east 5 to 7, perhaps gale 8 later. Moderate or rough. Occasional rain or showers. Mainly good.
South Fitzroy: Southerly at first in east, otherwise westerly becoming cyclonic later, 5 or 6. Moderate or rough, becoming rough or very rough. Occasional rain or thundery showers. Good, occasionally poor.
North Fitzroy, Sole: Southeasterly backing easterly 6 to gale 8, occasionally severe gale 9, becoming cyclonic 5 or 6 for a time in west. Rough or very rough, occasionally high later. Occasional rain. Good, occasionally poor.
Lundy, Fastnet: Southeast backing east 5 to 7. Moderate or rough. Showers. Good.
Irish Sea: East or northeast 5 or 6. Slight or moderate. Showers. Good.
Shannon: Southeast 7 to severe gale 9, backing east 5 to 7. Rough or very rough. Occasional rain. Good, occasionally poor.
Southwest Rockall: Southeasterly 5 to 7. Rough or very rough. Fair. Good.
Northeast Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey: Southeasterly 5 or 6. Moderate or rough. Fair. Good.
Fair Isle: Easterly or southeasterly 3 or 4, occasionally 5 in southwest. Slight or moderate. Fair. Good.
Faeroes: South or southeast 4 or 5, occasionally 6 later. Slight or moderate, becoming moderate or rough later. Mainly fair. Good.
Southeast Iceland: Southerly or southeasterly 5 or 6. Moderate or rough. Occasional rain, mainly in west, fog patches at first. Moderate or good, occasionally very poor at first.
Once Stav had finished, Matt’s voice came through the headphones, ‘Listen to this,’ and with the click of a button, the clean, clear forecast became slightly distorted with the crackle of interference. ‘You’re hearing it through a shortwave transistor radio we have hidden in the depths of the BBC,’ he explained. ‘We use it to ensure we are still broadcasting and to check what the listeners are hearing.’
I loved the idea that a tiny old-fashioned radio, gathering cobwebs somewhere in a largely forgotten office, was still in use while the rest of the building hummed with the latest in broadcasting equipment.
Even though most modern ships have on-board technology that gives the same information, even though much of the listening audience has no need of maritime weather bulletins, the Shipping Forecast retains its unique, otherworldly authority no matter which BBC reader intones the strict 370-word summary. It’s also a pointer to many of our seafaring traditions and accomplishments. Take the Beaufort Scale as an example – another of England’s meteorological gifts to the world, born from our rich weather patterns and unique maritime heritage.
The scale was devised in 1805 by Francis Beaufort, a Royal Navy officer on HMS Woolwich. Measurements of wind speed at the time were highly subjective, so the reports were unreliable. Beaufort devised a way of standardizing the strength of the wind, at first simply in terms of its effects on the sails of the Royal Navy’s frigates: from ‘just sufficient to give steerage’ to ‘that which no canvas sails could withstand’. As steam power arrived, the scale was changed to reflect the prevailing sea conditions rather than the effect on the fast-disappearing sails. In 1946, tropical cyclones – forces 13–17 – were added to the scale.
The shipping forecast itself can be traced back to 1853, when Captain Robert Fitzroy – the captain of HMS Beagle, made famous by Charles Darwin – was tasked with finding a way to predict the weather in order to reduce the growing number of Royal Navy and trading vessels lost around Britain’s coast. He set up fifteen weather stations around the coastline which together started to provide a version of the weather forecast by 1861. In 1911 the information was sent in Morse code to ships and then, sixty years after those fifteen weather stations were set up, in 1921, it was broadcast on the radio, marking the birth of the Shipping Forecast.
Fitzroy’s original weather stations were based on locations and geographical features. North and South Utsire, Wight, Lundy, Fastnet, Hebrides, Fair Isle, Faeroes and Southeast Iceland were all named after islands, many of which I have been to – including the notoriously stormy Rockall, which true to form was lashed by gales. I still feel sick just thinking
