Why was Finisterre changed to FitzRoy?
Finisterre was renamed FitzRoy in 2002, to end its conflicting with sea area names of the French and Spanish services.
Who reads the shipping forecast on Radio 4?
Alan Bennett reads the Shipping Forecast.
How long is the shipping forecast?
The shipping forecast is issued four times a day at 2300, 0500, 1100, 1700 UTC and covers a period of 24 hours from 0000, 0600, 1200 and 1800 UTC respectively.
Is Finisterre part of the shipping forecast?
The name Finisterre has been part of the UK Shipping Forecast since 1949. Britain uses the term to refer to a 90,000 square mile area of Atlantic Ocean off the North West coast of Spain. The problem is, Spain also uses the name Finisterre for a much smaller zone in the same ocean.
What does backing mean in shipping forecast?
Veering = Wind direction moving clockwise. Backing = Wind direction moving anti clockwise.
Is the shipping forecast still used?
The Shipping Forecast is still broadcast four times a day on long wave on BBC Radio 4, continuing a tradition which goes back 90 years. British ears accustomed to years of the familiar rhythms of Radio 4 will know the gentle reassurance afforded by updates from Forties, Faeroes and Fair Isle.
Where does the shipping forecast start?
There are now 31 zones, which are given out in strict order, beginning at Viking in the north-east bordering Norway, and proceeding in a clockwise direction round the British Isles. Only seven areas survive from the original list: Forties, Humber, Dogger, Thames, Wight, Shannon and Hebrides.
What happened to Finisterre?
After negotiations with the Spanish, the met office has surrendered Finisterre from its BBC radio shipping forecast. 2. British fans of the forecast, broadcast four times a day, were quick to complain, saying the names are like a poem. It has certainly inspired some.
Where does the Shipping Forecast come from on the radio?
The Shipping Forecast is a BBC Radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The forecasts sent over the Navtex system use a similar format and the same sea areas.
What are the names of the extended Shipping Forecasts?
Extended shipping forecasts (0520 and 0048) also include weather reports from a list of additional coastal stations and automatic weather logging stations, which are known by their names, such as “Channel Light Vessel Automatic”; these are the Coastal Weather Stations.
When was the last time Radio 4 failed to broadcast the Shipping Forecast?
On Friday 30 May 2014, for the first time in more than 90 years, BBC Radio 4 failed to broadcast the Shipping Forecast at 0520. Staff at Broadcasting House were reading out the report but it was not transmitted. Listeners instead heard BBC World Service. 24 August 2017 was the 150th anniversary of the shipping forecast.
Why is the shipping forecast so popular in the UK?
The Shipping Forecast is immensely popular with the British public; it daily attracts listeners in the hundreds of thousands – far more than actually require it. In 1995, a plan to move the late night broadcast by 12 minutes triggered angry newspaper editorials and debates in the UK Parliament and was ultimately scrapped.