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04 / 06 / 2004
Steven Tracton: Uncertainties should be included in meteorological information
Meteorologists present at the First World Conference on Broadcast Meteorology have called for more airspace to be given to meteorological information on European television.
Steven Tracton, expert in the use of forecasting by ensemble systems at the World Meteorological Organization, has urged forecasters in the media to convey uncertainties and at the same time show the information manually so the audience can make its own decisions about it. In his talk this afternoon at the First World Conference on Broadcast Meteorology he advocated better preparation for the presenters so they can convey the information more accurately.
Likewise, he stressed the importance of training for the presenters and the need for “balance and co-ordination between the experts and the information presenters”, so the information is neither too specialized nor too superficial.
In this afternoon’s debates, the experts agreed on the necessity also to convey doubt “not only the definite” in the forecasts, since often the communication media companies give forecasts a week ahead without leaving a margin for error that exists in any situation.
A comparison of the presentation style of meteorological information in Europe with that of the United States and Canada, where there is a wide range of specialist weather channels, has resulted in a call for more weather forecasters on European television, since “a country’s weather forecast cannot be completed in a session of 30 seconds”.
For his part, Manfred Kurz, expert at the German Meteorological Service for many years, said that “there is a need for well-trained meteorologists so they can understand the information, interpret it, put it across and make a manual analysis of the weather, in order to counterbalance the information that comes in from the satellites.
The First World Conference of Broadcast Meteorology is taking place as part of the Forum Dialogues and will continue until 5 June.
More information about World Conference on Broadcast Meteorology
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