The Weather Notebook: The Value of Weather Forecasting

The Value of Weather Forecasting
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Dave Thurlow, Host

Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook. In the second part of our visit to the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, producer Robin White finds out about the value of weather forecasting:

European Center for Medium Range
Weather Forecasting
RW: Since it was built twenty years ago, the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting in Reading has become a little-known but invaluable part of European society. Forecasts from the Center are used for ship routing, outdoor construction, military activites, agriculture, sporting events and stocking foodstuffs such as ice cream and lettuce in supermarkets. Spokesperson Austin Woods, says one of the uses has to do with the sale of electricity.

AW: Electricite de France trades electricity with neighboring countries. In winter time, a 1 degree celsius rise or fall in one day corresponds to about 1,000 megawatts of electricity production plus or minus.

RW: Electricite de France plans sales and purchases based on the weather forecast. Forecasts from Reading are also used by oil companies deploying rigs in Europe's North Sea. Each oil rig is worth $1.6 million dollars - fifty times the annual budget of the European Center. But sometimes the emphasis is not saving money but saving lives. The Center has a tapestry which shows a 1953 weather chart.

AW: You may be able to see on the map a very deep depression over the North sea that caused flooding of the Netherlands.

RW: The dykes in Holland were inundated and almost 2000 people died. Holland is now one of the eighteen countries which fund the European Center and rely on its forecasts to prevent loss of life and loss of income resulting from weather events."

Robin White is an independent producer from San Francisco. To listen to all of the pieces he's done for The Weather Notebook, be sure to visit our website, mountwashington.org. Thanks to Subaru and the National Science Foundation.