Weather forecast verification – how accurate are Met Office forecasts?

The Met Office has an open and transparent policy in the verification of its forecasts.

Verification is needed to measure how we are doing against the Key Performance Targets (KPT) for forecast accuracy, as set by government. These KPTs are part of our ongoing long-term commitment to improving the accuracy of our forecasts to the public. We will do this by reaching accuracy targets set for:

* next-day rainfall forecasts for 11 places within the UK (the nearest major towns to these places are shown on the map opposite);
* next-day temperature forecasts (max and min) for 11 places within the UK (the nearest major towns to these places are shown on the map opposite);
* the forecasting skill of our computer models.