§ Mr. John Ellisasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will instruct the Meteorological Office to improve its methods of evaluating the correctness or otherwise of the weather forecasts which it issues, and to employ some objective scientific criteria for such evaluations.
§ Mr. WellbelovedObjective scientific criteria are already used for evaluating the computer products on which weather forecasts are based and for evaluating some of the subjective charts derived from these products. The extension and improvement of these methods is being pursued actively. Some forecasts of weather elements such as temperature, which can be expressed in numerical terms, are also verified objectively.
The question of assessment of forecasts expressed in words has been studied, but it has been recognised for many years that there is no known objective scientific method for doing this precisely and subjective methods have therefore to be used.