Call for fines for weather forecasters who get it wrong

AS RAIN continues to lash much of northern Europe, frustrated tourism chiefs and local councillors in the Netherlands and Belgium claim incorrect weather forecasts are making the summer washout seem even worse than it is – and forecasters who get it wrong should be fined.

On Monday the Belgian hotel and restaurant association threatened to sue the national meteorological service, Météo Belgique, unless it produced “less-pessimistic forecasts” claiming that incorrect predictions of rain had cost them “millions of euro” in lost revenue already this summer. It urged forecasters caught up in the drama of an exceptionally soggy season to “pay as much attention to sun as they do to rain”.

Yesterday, Joep Thonissen, head of Dutch tourism industry body Recron agreed, saying “incorrect” forecasts were causing serious financial damage to an already battered sector and called on the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI) to pull up its socks. “We had a lot of really good sunny weather over the country last week but the forecasts were full of heavy rain and thunderstorms, so people stayed at home,” he said.

“Just because there’s heavy rain over Hilversum doesn’t mean there’s heavy rain everywhere else in the country. Forecasting should be more sophisticated than that.”

Local Labour Party councillors in the seaside town of Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland) went further, calling for fines to “punish” forecasters whose predictions were incorrect.

Pieter van Cutsem, who runs a small hotel there, backed that demand, saying: “Despite having better forecasting tools than ever before, they’re getting it wrong far more often – and people are cancelling bookings as a direct result.

“Yes, I agree there’s a case for fining forecasters who get it wrong – on the grounds of disseminating false and damaging information.” However, last night the KNMI rejected the criticism, saying its function was scientific. “TV, radio and newspapers use the raw data we collect to prepare their own forecasts – but how exactly they present those forecasts is a matter entirely for them.”