Met Office ‘to give forecasts from abroad’ with £1.2 billion energy-guzzling supercomputer

Posted: February 14, 2021 by oldbrew in climate, Energy, MET office, weather
Tags: , , ,

Weather forecasting technology


Of course they wouldn’t want to incur the wrath of climate alarmists who blame humans for the weather, since they’re closely allied with them and believe carbon dioxide, although fine for vegetation and fizzy drinks, is somehow ‘unclean’.
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H/T TheWorldNews.

Bosses at the Met Office are said to want to house half a £1.2 billion new supercomputer system outside the UK, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Well-placed sources say the forecasting set-up will be the most advanced in the world, but there are fears that the huge amount of energy it uses will torpedo the service’s public stance on fighting climate change.

‘The electricity this thing will use will be so massive that they want to house half of the technology somewhere like Norway where they have cleaner energy,’ one insider said.

The Met Office’s current system, which uses enough energy to power 1,500 homes, can predict where it will rain, sleet, snow or shine to an accuracy of about one square mile across most of the UK.

Norway gets 99 per cent of its energy from 31 hydropower plants, whereas only a fifth of the UK’s supply is from renewable sources.

Another option is Iceland, where about 85 per cent of energy comes from geothermal plants, hydropower, solar panels and wind farms.

The Met Office’s current system, which uses enough energy to power 1,500 homes, can predict where it will rain, sleet, snow or shine to an accuracy of about one square mile across most of the UK.

This target area is reduced to 300 square yards in London to improve forecasts around the major airports.

Well-placed sources say the forecasting set-up will be the most advanced in the world, but there are fears that the huge amount of energy it uses will torpedo the service’s public stance on fighting climate change.

It is hoped that the supercomputer, six times more powerful, will predict the weather with an accuracy of 100 square yards.

Full article here.

Comments
  1. saighdear says:

    Could say a lot: but basically, let them attach it to a windmill and get unlimited power when the wind blows. I wouldn’t welcome a foreign consumer onto my patch to compete for my power, supply /demand increasing my power prices….just to give junk results? NOTHING, repeat, NOTHING, about their local forecasts have been anywhere near correct here in the past few weeks – from Precipitation to Temps – all wrong.

  2. saighdear says:

    … and I forgo to add: “.. hoped that the supercomputer, six times more powerful, will predict the weather with an accuracy of 100 square yards.” SQUARE YARDS??? Thocht we wis a metricated / deci-‘mated’ by now. so square yards is a new metric since brexit … just about says it all, dunnit?

  3. Gamecock says:

    “What did you do with the last money we gave you?”

    A £1.2 billion super(sic)computer won’t fix their software problems. They’ll just get it wrong quicker. With more granularity.

    ‘The Met Office’s current system . . . can predict where it will rain, sleet, snow or shine to an accuracy of about one square mile across most of the UK.’

    No time parameter mentioned. Timing is everything in weather forecasting.

    ‘This target area is reduced to 300 square yards in London to improve forecasts around the major airports.’

    Airports use current weather. Not forecasts. A forecast of snow on the left runway, but not the right runway, will be ignored. I.e., the alleged granularity is of NO VALUE WHATSOEVER. Even if it could be accomplished*. This super(sic)computer is a meteorologists’ play toy, of no value to anyone else.

    *The task is impossible on its face, but without time parameters, it’s impossible to know.

  4. Chaswarnertoo says:

    GIGO.

  5. oldbrew says:

    This target area is reduced to 300 square yards in London to improve forecasts around the major airports.

    How many forecasts per runway is that? 😆

  6. It doesn't add up... says:

    Not sure that Norway is the ideal choice if you are looking for cheap power. Now they have opened their interconnector to Germany they are importing German electricity prices, with frightening effects:

    https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/VyrHt/2/

    Add in the very considerable charges for “grid rent” – 300NOK/year/kW if you want guaranteed supply.

    Perhaps they should locate it at a floating offshore hydrogen producing wind farm? /sarc

  7. JB says:

    “Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”’Thou shalt not make a machine to counterfeit a human mind.’” Reverend Gaius Helen Mohaim Dune

    “No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand!” –G’Kar

    It is why you shall fail, Klaus. In >10K years none of your ilk have been able to pull it off. And you never learn. At the heart of the machine is the human mind–totally unpredictable.

  8. Stephen Richards says:

    Another BBC in the making. Defund the idiots. Dec 8 2020. Winters are becoming very warm. Feb 2021 Knee deep in snow and low temperatures.

  9. oldbrew says:

    somewhere like Norway where they have cleaner energy

    Or they knew – like we all do – that British weather could never deliver reliable electricity from renewables.

  10. Pyrex7 says:

    So when a butterfly flaps it’s wings….. This supercomputer will spot that, right?

  11. Gamecock says:

    Funny, oldbrew.

    “Winds will be light, from the southwest tomorrow. By the way, we’ll be off line tomorrow.”

    But one wonders, can they run half the computer? Is it really ONE computer if hundreds of millions of pounds worth of it is in another country?

    Or, as oldbrew suggests, is the Met Office protecting themselves from . . . themselves?

    The deeper you get into Net Zero, the absurder it will get.

  12. Don B says:

    The climate alarmists in Boulder, Colorado built their supercomputer in Wyoming because the coal generated electricity is so much cheaper there.  🙂

    Wyoming experiences that "giant sucking sound" as new coal fired climate supercomputer is turned on

  13. Last night saw on a program on bees that they can tell the weather several days ahead. I know that ants can tell weather a week or two ahead especially for heavy rain. Some of the birds can tell approaching storms. Not sure if that applies in UK but in Oz farmers look for signs rather than rely on BOM who even can not look out of the window to see if it is cloudy, raining or sunny. BOM has a supercomputer to run their program with CO2 and other gas input. The supercomputer gives false information. Forecasts are only correct when someone looks at atmospheric pressure profiles and radar for weather coming from the west. They never get long range right because they dismiss cyclical information such as the SOI (southern oscillation index)

  14. oldbrew says:

    Similar thing with data centres…

    By 2028 data centres and other large users will consume 29% of Ireland’s electricity, according to EirGrid, Ireland’s state-owned transmission system operator. Worldwide data centres consume about 2% of electricity, a figure set to reach 8% by 2030.

    https://electricityinfo.org/news/ireland-data-centres/

    Put that in your ‘net zero’ calculator 🤔

  15. Gamecock says:

    I heard Apple canceled their major data center at Athenry, Ireland. Don’t know if it will affect others.

  16. oldbrew says:

    TikTok was looking at Ireland…

    Aug 6, 2020
    TikTok Courts Europe With New Irish Data Center

    The company has already sited its EMEA Trust and Safety Hub in Dublin, and recently made its Irish company the data controller and service provider for its users across the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2020/08/06/tiktok-courts-europe-with-new-irish-data-center/

  17. tom0mason says:

    Maybe the Met Office will be able to ACCURATELY tell what the weather will be in any location now, tomorrow , and in 5 days time. I live in hope ’cause they have not managed it so far.
    Another £1.2 billion for what?