High pressure UK forecasters to boldly go a month ahead

The mainstay of British casual the unexT conversation pected state of the weather - is under existential threat.

- Robin McKie

Scientists plan to make forecasts so accurate they will be able to determine weather patterns a month into the future.

Barbecue misery and Wimbledon washouts could take a serious hit - thanks to the new 15-year research programme that has been launched by Reading University, in partnership with the UK's Met Office and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. The aim is to transform the ability to unravel the minute influences that determine weather patterns and uncover the limits of predictability in the real world.

"A major goal of our work is to be able to say what the weather will be like a month ahead," said Prof Rowan Sutton, research dean for the environment at Reading - though he stressed that it would not be possible to predict, precisely, a month ahead whether a particular day would be sunny or rainy.