While we’re on the topic of December’s flooding over here in the UK, we might care to check out what the Met Office were forecasting, at the end of November, in their 3-month outlook.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/m/8/A3_plots-precip-DJF-2.pdf
OK, they’ve got till the end of February, and maybe it will stop raining for the next six weeks. But, I would not hold my breath.
I accept it is asking a lot for the Met Office, or any other meteorological organisation, to accurately forecast a month or more in advance. But their 3-month outlooks are specifically designed as “contingency planners”.
The floods last month are a prime example of where such contingency planning is needed. Is there any point at all in the Met Office spending money on this exercise, if they cannot even identify a risk that such flooding was a possibility?