Last year the BBC launched Weather Watchers, an online crowd-sourced weather club for people who want to join in the nation’s favourite conversation and help tell the story of the UK’s weather.
Open to everyone with an interest in what the weather is up to, BBC Weather Watchers plays a key role in bringing a wide audience together – and in particular, an older audience – on this much-loved topic. Not only can they have fun creating their own weather reports, but even have their pictures and observations appear in BBC broadcasts. A first for the BBC, the club will connect the audience’s passion for weather with BBC storytelling on local radio, regional and network TV and will also aim to grow relationships with regular weather watchers, getting them on air to help tell the latest on their local weather.
The website is easy to navigate and works on whatever platform it is accessed from: PC, mobile or tablet. Irrespective of scientific knowledge and equipment, people will be able to sign in and create simple digital weather reports to ‘now-cast’ whatever the weather is doing where they live.
Working with the Royal Meteorological Society – the project’s academic partner – BBC Weather Watchers also provides information about the science behind the weather and behind-the-scenes info from BBC national and regional weather presenters.
Liz Howell, Head of BBC Weather, says: “BBC Weather Watchers is for everyone. Easy to use, it will bring the nation together on a topic they love so that wherever they are in the country, they can be a part of BBC Weather. It will help some take steps into the digital world and boost existing skills, whilst fulfilling the BBC’s public purposes such as supporting education and learning, representing the many communities in the UK and delivering the benefit of emerging media technologies.”
But BBC Weather Watchers is more than a map of the UK weather: weather watchers can also learn about the science behind the weather through our partners at the Royal Meteorological Society, and get behind-the-scenes info from their favourite national and regional weather presenters.
BBC Weather Watchers is open to anyone over the age of 16 with an interest in what the weather is up to. Currently 133,000 have already signed up and almost 1 million reports have been submitted.
BBC Weather Presenter, Carol Kirkwood said:
“As we are an island, our weather is quite diverse – cold continent, warm sea and we cross latitudes – so as a result we can receive starkly different pictures from all over the UK taken at the same time e.g. dense fog in southern England, frost and clear skies in the Highlands, and showers in Newcastle.
If I was really pushed to choose which pictures are my favourites, it would definitely be sunrises and sunsets so it’s just as well as I am usually on BBC Breakfast in the morning. We love your pictures so thank you for sending them and please keep them coming in.”
This is a topic the British public is passionate about. The weather shapes the decisions we make every day, from going out; to what to wear or whether to hang the washing out to dry.
Most of us will have seen the beautiful photographs that appear on our screens to accompany the forecasts. So even if you do not use a computer you can still enjoy the weather scenes from around our country.
Sign-up for Weather Watchers and read more about it on www.bbc.co.uk/weatherwatchers
Help from the BBC:
Make it Digital has worked with Weather Watchers from the start because we want to inspire everyone to shape their digital world. And what better way to do that than by joining the nation’s favourite conversation about our weather.
Many of the 12.6 million people in the UK with low digital skills are older, and might need a little extra help to join the Weather Watchers club and upload their photos and weather reports. So we’ve teamed up with libraries across all nations of the UK, where one to one help is on hand for anyone to become a Weather Watcher. And taking that first step opens a door to more opportunities to be and stay connected, to shape the digital world around us all.
Make it Digital has worked with Weather Watchers from the start because we want to inspire everyone to shape their digital world. And what better way to do that than by joining the nation’s favourite conversation about our weather.
Many of the 12.6 million people in the UK with low digital skills are older, and might need a little extra help to join the Weather Watchers club and upload their photos and weather reports. So we’ve teamed up with libraries across all nations of the UK, where one to one help is on hand for anyone to become a Weather Watcher. And taking that first step opens a door to more opportunities to be and stay connected, to shape the digital world around us all.
