Joanna Donnelly: Focus for forecasters is on how to communicate uncertainty

Limitations in how far we can predict the weather, and how accurately we can describe the future changed climate, has been limited by chaos at the starting point or description of the boundary conditions

To date, all the weather models around the world have been based on the laws of physics. Now, we’re looking at pattern matching.

The only certainties in life are death and taxes.

So why do people struggle to accept that there is uncertainty in so many things? Perhaps it’s due to the fact that, because so much information can be obtained in a quick online search, the concept of not being able to find something out for certain seems alien.