What has psychology got to do with the weather? Well, actually, a lot more than you might think. When the Met Office produces a weather forecast, it’s not doing it just for the sake of predicting a future state of the atmosphere; it does it because weather impacts us. It determines when we put our washing out, whether we wear a coat, our hobbies, our businesses and their operations, and our safety. We want to know what the weather will do, rather than what it will be. The Met Office’s purpose is ‘helping you make better decisions to stay safe and thrive’. This statement of intent puts people at the heart of the service’s raison d’etre. So it stands to reason that this cannot be done without using the social sciences, including psychology, to ensure that weather forecasts and warnings are useful and usable, understandable, and, most importantly, acted upon. The Met Office’s Helen Roberts talks about this fascinating process.
We’ll also be giving away five copies of The Met Office Cloud Book: How to Understand the Skies
.jpg)
