Weather forecaster Met Éireann errors included 10-degree difference in one town

Complaints to Met Éireann range from accuracy — with one person wondering if 'the guy in Carlow' would be more reliable — to spelling errors and the colours used in maps

Fountainstown, Co Cork on June 25, one of the hottest days of the year so far. One complaint to Met Éireann said its website routinely showed temperatures of only 15C or 16C while other forecasts suggested highs of 25C-27C during the heatweaves. Picture: David Creedon

The public complained to Met Éireann about wildly differing temperature forecasts during the summer’s first heatwave, including one that gave a 10-degree difference for the same town.

A weather-watcher checking conditions in June was told it would be 26C and sunny when they searched for ‘Tralee, Co Kerry.’ 

However, entering only ‘Tralee’ produced a forecast of just 16C and cloudy conditions on the same day.

In response, Met Éireann said its regional forecast at the time was predicting highs of between 26C and 31C right across Munster.

The weather service suspected the lower temperature reading was an error or old data that was held on the user’s device.

Another person in Cork complained that Met Éireann’s website was routinely showing temperatures of only 15C or 16C while other forecasts were suggesting highs of 25C to 27C.

They said the problem had persisted for months and claimed the website was displaying almost identical temperatures “day and night” despite much warmer conditions.

A separate complaint asked whether they would be better off deleting the Met Éireann app altogether after it predicted a less than 5% chance of rain, only for heavy rain to fall while they were cutting their grass.

They asked whether AccuWeather or “the guy in Carlow” might be more reliable.

 

Another complained of the lack of a wind warning on a blustery day in June, saying they’d seen calmer days in November and that it was “not good enough.” 

A Met Éireann response said: “While unseasonably breezy, the wind is not forecast to reach levels considered strong enough to trigger weather warnings.” 

One person was unhappy with the colours the meteorological service used for recording how hot it was.

They said 9C was marked yellow, which was “not warm”, and that anything below 18C should be a shade of blue.

“It has been very confusing to understand the weather at a glance since the temperature colours changed some time last year,” said their message.

Presentation Secondary School Tralee students Emily O'Connor, Emily O'Regan, Ranya Alreesae, Isabel Cox, and Natasha Zcyb studying in the sunshine on May 25 during one of the summer's first spells of warm weather. A member of the public in the town complained during the first heatwave about a 10C disparity in Met Éireann's reports. Picture: Domnick Walsh

In response, Met Éireann said the colour scheme used had been changed in 2022 but that they would be happy to review the feedback.

Another lamented the fact that one page of the Met Éireann app contained no fewer than five spelling errors.

They wrote: “Not the end of the world, I know, but should be spell-checked at least.” 

A Met Éireann response said: “Apologies for the spelling errors in the Farming Commentary issued yesterday, it has since been updated to fix those on the app and on our website.”

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