Wayne, the Chief Press Officer at the Met Office, gave some insight into the balancing acts the Met Office are required to perform.

The Shipping Forecast is a major source of information for sailors ( a group who can often do little to avoid bad weather) and there is a strong commitment to providing reliable forecasts by this route. However, within the heavily time-limited format, it is impossible to explain the complexities of weather within individual sea areas - although there may be quite large variations.

More generally ( in more than one sense of the word) the Met Office is expected to act as a climatologist to the media. While newspaper science correspondents may know something of meteorology, news desk are very unlikely to understand much. It leads them to quiz them about earthquakes and tsunamis, phenomena with no connection at all with weather.

Even when the subject is weather there are opportunities ( readily taken) for distortion. Wayne quoted the Press Release in Autumn 2005 which said that the coming winter may be colder and drier than usual. In one newspaper this turned into a frontpage headline: "Killer Freeze This Winter". The Release had been discussed at length with the journalist as he prepared his story and the story was, in fact, quite accurate once you read beyond the first few lines. It was the sub-editors dreaming up paper-selling headline who were the problem. Wayne's advice: ignore the headlines and opening paragraphs.

There were other insights. Who knew that Britain has more weather-related deaths than any other western country? The Met Office are working with the NHS to understand this better and warn of potentially hazardous periods.

They predict tidal storm surges which result from the interaction between storms and tidal waters, particularly in the North Sea. They are now able to make reasonable predictions of enhanced high-water levels and issue reliable flood alerts to ports.

Challenged on the dumbing-down of BBC weather forecasts, he said that he thought the graphics had settled down and were much better. The synoptic charts had been lost - but most people who watched the TV forecast didn't understand them. The additional material in regional TV presentations sometimes included these along with other information - such as wind speeds - of interest to the yachtman.

Summary by Geoff Meggitt and Carol Sparkes