Britons stunned by BBC app’s shocking 18,995 mph wind forecast!
Britons on Thursday were startled by unsettling news when the popular BBC Weather app erroneously predicted winds 150 times more powerful than Hurricane Milton, which was attributed to a data glitch. As television news channels aired footage of Milton pummeling Florida in the United States, the extraordinary wind speeds displayed on the BBC Weather app led many individuals to seek clarification on social media platforms.
One X user, posting under the username Larky McRory, shared a screenshot of the app displaying wind speeds of 18,995 mph, accompanied by the comment: “Go home BBC weather app, you’re drunk.It’s about 37mph.”
Hurricane Milton, classified as a Category 3 hurricane in Florida, had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph).
BBC Weather attempted to alleviate public concerns by clarifying that the weather conditions were more likely to resemble a typical autumn day with cold air and gusty showers, rather than hurricane-force winds. BBC Scotland Weather posted on X, saying, “Don’t worry folks, there isn’t a hurricane on the way today for Scotland, and Edinburgh isn’t going to see wind gusts of an impossible magnitude of 17246mph! There is a major error in the data being ingested into the app.”
The app displayed a banner announcement acknowledging the issues with the forecast data and assuring users that they were working to resolve the problem. BBC Weather also acknowledged that some temperatures were being displayed incorrectly and apologized for the inconvenience.
The glitch evoked memories among some social media users of the incident in 1987 when Michael Fish, Britain’s leading weather presenter at the time, assured viewers that reports of an approaching hurricane were inaccurate, mere hours before hurricane-force winds struck the nation.