Glitch on BBC Weather App Shows Outlandish Forecasts
Glitch on BBC Weather App Shows Outlandish Forecasts - The New York Times
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Glitch on BBC Weather App Shows Outlandish Forecasts
No, it will not actually reach 832 degrees in Brazil’s capital this weekend.
The forecasts called for 13,000-mile per-hour winds in Chicago, 832-degree temperatures in Brazil, and slightly higher ones in Kenya.
But those predictions, thankfully, were erroneous. They were the result of a glitch on the BBC Weather app that warned Thursday of disaster around the world.
The BBC apologized for the mistake, and the forecasts were partially fixed by Thursday evening.
The wildly inaccurate predictions were displayed on the BBC’s website and weather app because of incorrect forecast data from a third-party company, DTN, the British public broadcaster said.
The issue was with “some of the weather data from our forecast provider, which is generating incorrect numbers and text on our BBC Weather app and website,” the BBC said in a statement.
DTN did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
A BBC spokesperson said that the company was working with DTN to finish fixing the problem.
Tens of millions of people have downloaded the weather app since its launch in 2013, according to the Google Play store.
Some who saw the forecasts shared screenshots from their weather app on X, formerly Twitter.
Stuart Malcolm of Chichester, a city in southern England, shared a photo of the 16,717 miles per hour wind speeds forecast for Chichester and said that it appeared the city had been relocated “to the surface of Neptune!”
“It was obviously a glitch so I just thought it was funny,” Mr. Malcolm wrote to The New York Times on Thursday, adding that he had checked multiple weather apps anyway before going to see the Northern Lights this evening. “Luckily I didn’t have to go anywhere more than a few miles away.”
Simon King, a BBC meteorologist, warned his followers on X on Thursday not to be alarmed by the numbers on the app.
“Be assured there won’t be 14408mph winds, hurricane force winds or overnight temperatures of 404°C,” Mr. King wrote.
Weather apps often source their information from automated data gathered from national weather agencies and stations. This data sometimes requires additional analysis and interpretation from meteorologists before being useful to the public. But it is unclear how the data that came into the BBC on Thursday was so inaccurate.
Sara Ruberg covers breaking news and is a member of the 2024-25 class of Times Fellows, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Sara Ruberg
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
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