Weather Symbols and Graphics Development

The Famous BBC Weather Symbols

From hand-drawn, to magnetic rubber, to computerised, find out how they have changed over time.

Symbols have been featured on BBC weather charts since the earliest days of television in 1936. The first weathermen had to hand-draw their charts with wax crayons. This method was used for a long period after George Cowling's first broadcast in January 1954.

With the introduction of colour television in 1967, the BBC brought in a new range of symbols which, after discussion with the Met Office, were based on international standards - with triangles for showers, and round dots for rain. Magnetic rubber was employed for the symbols and isobars, which could be stuck to steel wall charts. They could also fall off again!

On Saturday, August 16, 1975, a new set of weather symbols, designed to give viewers a clearer and quicker understanding of essential forecast details, was introduced. With minor modifications, they are the same as those used for today's computer graphics.

They were the creation of Mark Allen, a 22 year old graphic designer, who first submitted his ideas to the BBC and the Met Office in 1974, while a student at the Norwich School of Art. His suggestions, including the use of a new cloud symbol, complemented discussions between the Met Office, which is responsible for the content of the TV weather forecasts, and the BBC, which is responsible for their style and presentation. Magnetic rubber symbols were replaced by computerised symbols in 1985.

Computerised Weather Graphics

On Monday, February 18, 1985, magnetic rubber made way for new technology when the most advanced computerised weather display system in the world came into operation. Using the latest in computer graphics, specially created by an in-house BBC computer graphics department, the new system was designed to provide more information for the expert while remaining comprehensible to the layman.

The powerful forecast computers at Met Office HQ, then in Bracknell, were linked directly to a graphics computer system at Television Centre where weathermen started to use desktop terminals to produce a sequence of visual images. These included moving satellite pictures; pressure and rainfall displays and league tables of temperatures, rainfall and sunshine in various parts of the country.

A major development in weather graphics came on Monday, May 30, 1988 when a colourful new batch of displays, paying particular attention to the strength and direction of both wind and rainfall, were introduced.

Developed by the BBC's Computer Graphics team, they included a radar display showing the distribution and intensity of rainfall over the British Isles. Radar scanners send data from around the country to the Met Office where the main computer forwards a composite picture to the duty weatherman at Television Centre enabling him to prepare a moving sequence showing where and how hard the rain has been falling and where it's going next. The heaviness of the rainfall is shown by shades of blue, yellow and green, deepening from light to dark, and thunderstorms are in red. In addition, rain-bearing clouds shown in satellite pictures were changed from white to black.

A new wind display was also introduced, using white arrows whose length and breadth show wind direction and strength. When run as a sequence the wind appears to move, develop and progress.

Other new graphics included a full global weather picture obtained from the Meteosat satellite, 36,000 kilometres above the equator and others orbiting 800 kilometres above the ground from pole to pole. Air temperatures, meanwhile, are illustrated by bands of colour with deep blue indicating extreme cold through to red for very warm.

In September 1996, more new computer graphics were introduced. Background maps were redrawn to show greater topographical definition and land shadings were made more natural, with deserts appearing in yellow, ice caps in white etc. More powerful graphics computers mean that charts can be produced more quickly and allow for greater use of sequences.

Weather graphics for BBC News 24, which launched in November 1997, had to look different from those used on BBC ONE and BBC TWO and charts with a predominantly blue and orange colour scheme were introduced. The computer system was upgraded to produce charts in two different colour schemes - and in widescreen format for BBC News 24. This returned to the same colour scheme in 2000 with the Weather 2000 relaunch.

In May 2005, BBC Weather launched the latest redesign across all of its ouput, from television broadcasts and the website, to digital text services. A brand new graphics system was designed specifically for the BBC, which uses 3D animated graphics. Virtual reality technology presents constantly updated weather data, to give real time forecasting.

The look of the graphics used to present the forecast was also changed. The 3D technology allows the forecaster to take a virtual tour around the UK or world to show the current weather situation or forecast for the next five days. Rain and snow can now be shown to be 'falling' from clouds and forecasters can now combine different weather graphics to present the forecast more clearly.