Weather monitoring equipment and techniques are becoming so accurate that we can predict a weather report down to little more than a square kilometre. Does this mean blaming rained-off picnics on the weatherman is a thing of the past? OCTOBER 2012 marked the 25th anniversary of the hurricane that ripped through southern England. Surely there is no more poignant reminder of the importance of accurate weather forecasting than the destruction left behind. During a now-infamous TV weather forecast of the afternoon of 15 October, BBC weatherman Michael Fish reassured a concerned viewer who had heard that a hurricane was on the way: "don't worry, there isn't." Some 24 hours later, 18 people had lost their lives and the near-hurricane had left devastation in its wake.
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