Queen's University Belfast researchers helping weather predictions go hi-tech

SOME independent weather forecasters who depend on observations of wildlife, nature and even the moon — including New Zealander Ken Ring — have again come to prominence and been credited with predicting the recent fine spell.

But weather forecasting of the type we see on our TV screens nightly is really a hi-tech affair that is advancing all the time, especially with the increasing sophistication of satellites that are regularly orbiting the Earth, 500 miles above our heads and circling the poles every 102 minutes.

Over the millennia, man has observed nature to help him forecast the weather. Some animals have an instinct which tells them to prepare for what’s coming, like swallows flying low to scoop up insects when rain is on the way, for example. We’ve had the phenomenon of elephants moving to higher ground ahead of a tsunami, well before humans suspected anything was amiss.