OFF: Weather

[J Strobridge]

Paul Mather writes:

> at each step were completely known (thanks to "the theory of everything"),
> it would be impossible to simulate such an enormous amount of data
> (bearing in mind we'd have to, due to possible sensitivity to initial
> conditions).  (Even current weather simulations can only cope with a tiny
> fraction of the Earth's available weather data, and we know how good they
> are at predicting "the ultimate fate of the British summer".:)


curiously enough there's been a fair amount recently on TV and in the
newspapers about somebody who has been setting himself up as a
weather forecaster using his own personal chaos theory.   Now he may
just be a crank and a nutcase but he reckons his long term forecasts
are, and have been for several years (he's been making a steady income
out of putting bets on at the bookmakers) considerably more reliable
than the Met Office.   This does seem to be borne out by the fact that
there are farmers (particularly vegetable growers) and other businesses
who subscribe to his weather forecasting service and rely on them
heavily and are more than satisfied at their accuracy so far.   I got
the impression that he just doesn't believe (unlike current Met Office
theorists) that the weather remains chaotic - and seems to base his
stability patterns on sunspot observation.

I dunno.

jill

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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at tattoo.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk

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