91Èȱ¬

"We still await a proper frost and a good gale," Rob McElwee, one of the 91Èȱ¬'s weather forecasters, pointed out yesterday, with telling regret. Most of the time Britain's weather is dull (the only drama in the current outlook is "a wet and windy spell at the end of week two") and the clear-voiced experts who read it out do their best to make it interesting, adopting a chatty tone, naturally focusing on those bits of the country where conditions are likely to be most extreme. The west of Scotland and Northern Ireland seem to get a lot of attention - perhaps it's all those Atlantic storms hitting land - but the Midlands, where the weather is rarely exciting, feels overlooked. Listeners, however, unlike forecasters, are not searching for thrills. They want to know what the weather is going to be like where they live, even if it will be much the same as the day before. This is why an experiment on Radio 4's PM programme last week worked so well. Peter Gibbs, one of the Met Office's regular broadcasters, decided to read out the evening's weather in the slow, routine manner of the shipping forecast - "East Anglia, southern England, rain at first, heavy at times, dying out overnight, lowest temperature 11 to 13 degrees, tomorrow dry with sunny intervals". It was a triumph - clear, informative and memorable - and, even if intended as a cheeky, one-off parody, it should herald a quiet reformation of the 91Èȱ¬'s forecasts. Listeners, judging by their responses, liked the new factual style. So make it permanent."