5G Weather Forecasting

The Met Office hopes to map the UK’s microweather better with the rollout of the 5G network.

20:39 09 August 2017

London weather forecasting is predictably unpredictable. One can wake up to 17ËšC sunshine in Holloway and turn up to a Wimbledon washout an hour later. To help Britons properly plan their day, the Met Office now considers mapping the UK’s microweather using 5G network. With this technology, anybody’s phone becomes a mobile weather station. It is also hoped that a new street-by-street microweather service could be designed to gather information on different cities’ widely varied local weather using data picked up from sensors in cars and radio waves passing between mobile and phone base stations.

 

Graham Madge, a spokesperson for the Met Office, said: “Urban heat islands are a well- known phenomenon. Concrete buildings absorb heat, while the height can create wind tunnels. It’s why the wind so often seems to be either with you or against you when you’re cycling into work. The “office quarter” in cities can be windier, with quite marked gusts.”

 

He added: “We get data from aircraft, from ships, and from an increasing number of other inputs,” says Madge. Getting caught short in shorts may, some day soon, be a thing of the past.