Just got back from a fab day out. The met office had an open day. It was like heaven going (long drive though)
First were given an introcutory talk and a quick talk on climate change.
Then split into groups and shown around the library then we got to peek at the met office supercomputer. then there was a focus group thingy on what we thought of met office warnings.
Then we got to see the frontline forecasters at work, incl Chief forecaster. Couldnt go in as you'd imagine its all very busy and Important. but we could look through the windows.
Then we were given a talk by a forecaster on forecasting.
I asked about Met Office Invent (that map I frequently link to) I wanted to know which model it used and whether it was just a computer generated model. It uses the UK model (so high resolution) but it is only a computer model without any forecaster input. (So, we need to take care when using it as although it is very good it doesnt have commonsense or experience programmed in)
After we could look around the library. I learned something very cool. Members of public can join the library, browse their catalogue online and order books. The library post them out free of charge and the only cost to you is posting them back.
link here So I joined the met office library and took a book home
Well worth looking out for if you are an enthusiast. worth noting though that dd was the only child who attended. She is as geeky as me so she enjoyed it but I'm not sure that many children would.