Whatever the weather

ALL THIS talk of getting a good summer because the frog-spawn is early or the dolphins are staying north makes Gerald Fleming a bit impatient.

He’s a scientist, so to him, weather forecasting is about science, not about how high up in the trees the birds are nesting.

“I don’t place any credence on the self-styled forecaster — their approach and our approach are fundamentally very different,” says the Head of the Forecasting Division at Met Éireann.