The Shipping Forecast: is this much-loved British institution reaching the end of the road?

In May, the BBC announced that, as part of its latest round of cuts, Radio 4’s long-wave service will lose its dedicated programmes next year, and will in time be shut down altogether.

Radio 4 long wave broadcasts the Shipping Forecast four times per day (at 00:48, 05:20, 12:01, and 17:54). The forecast won’t die out altogether: the early morning and late-night broadcasts will remain on Radio 4’s FM, DAB and online services. But the loss of the long-wave signal, which can be received far from the British mainland, will mean that sailors and fishermen will no longer be able to tune into its crackly radio weather updates at sea. This long-lived and much-loved British institution may be reaching the end of the road.

How long has the Shipping Forecast existed?

It is the longest continuous weather forecast in history, which can trace its roots back to 1861, to the work of Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy, who founded what would become the Meteorological Office.

In 1921, the Shipping Forecast emerged in something like its current form: Britain’s first radio forecast was broadcast twice a day from Poldhu wireless station in Cornwall. From 1924, the “Weather Shipping” was broadcast from London. The following year, the fledgling BBC began to broadcast it, and aside from a break during both World Wars (when it was suspended for fear it could help the enemy), the BBC has continued to do so ever since. It is the world’s oldest radio programme.

What does the forecast actually mean, though?

The bulletin follows a strict format, beginning with gale warnings, followed by a general synopsis, and then the area-by-area forecasts. The waters around the British Isles are divided into 31 sea areas, starting at the top of the North Sea (“Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire”), moving round clockwise, travelling down to western Spain (“Trafalgar”) and back up, eventually ending with Southeast Iceland.

The forecast is limited to 350 or, at 00:48, 380 words, so it is very pared-down. That helps to give it its “slightly mysterious, poetic quality”, says Nic Compton, the author of a book on the subject.

For each area, the forecast gives the wind direction (which may be “veering” clockwise or “backing” anti-clockwise) and strength (using the Beaufort scale); then sea state (“moderate”, say, or “very rough”); weather (meaning rain); and finally visibility. So a typical forecast could be something like: “Humber, Thames. Southeast veering southwest 4 or 5, occasionally 6 later. Thundery showers. Moderate or good, occasionally poor.”

Where do the names come from?

They’re named after a variety of evocative geographical features: estuaries (Humber, Cromarty, Shannon); sandbanks and shallows (Dogger, Forties, Fisher, Sole); bodies of water (Biscay, German Bight); headlands (Trafalgar and Malin, the northern tip of Ireland); and islands and islets (Wight, Fastnet, Rockall).

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/from-the-magazine/957102/shipping-forecast-reaching-end-of-road