LONDON: Britons woke up to alarming news on Thursday, with the widely used BBC Weather app forecasting winds 150 times stronger than Hurricane Milton, due to a data malfunction.
With television news channels showing Milton smashing into Florida in the United States, the unprecedented winds forecast on the BBC Weather app prompted many people to turn to social media for an explanation.
“Go home BBC weather app, you’re drunk. It’s about 37mph,” said one X user, posting under the username Larky McRory, next to a screenshot of the app showing wind speeds of 18,995 mph.
Hurricane Milton was registered as a Category 3 hurricane in Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph).
BBC Weather sought to reassure the public that they did not in fact have to brace for hurricane winds, with a post on X saying that the weather was more likely to be a typical autumnal day of cold air and blustery showers.
“Don’t worry folks, there isn’t a hurricane on the way today for Scotland, and Edinburgh isn’t going to see wind gusts of an impossible magnitude of 17246mph!,” BBC Scotland Weather said on X. “There is a major error in the data being ingested into the app.”
A banner announcement on the app said: “We’re experiencing issues with our forecast data. We’re working to resolve it.” BBC Weather noted some temperatures were also displaying wrongly and apologized.
The malfunction prompted some social media users to recall the moment in 1987 when Britain’s then leading weather presenter, Michael Fish, reassured viewers that reports of a brewing hurricane were not accurate, just hours before hurricane-force winds hit the country.
BBC Weather app wrongly shows 18,995 mph wind speeds in Britain
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BBC Weather app wrongly shows 18,995 mph wind speeds in Britain
- App malfunction suggested winds were 150 times stronger than Hurricane Milton currently battering Florida
Monumental art displayed in shade of Egypt’s pyramids
- “There is an estimate that it’s more or less five million people reached by the message of the Third Paradise”
- A thousand small cylindrical acrylic mirrors planted in the sand compose a Morse code poem imagining a dialogue between Tangun, the legendary founder of the first Korean kingdom, and an Egyptian pharaoh
CAIRO: Installations by renowned international artists including Italy’s Michelangelo Pistoletto and Portugal’s Alexandre Farto have been erected in the sand under the great pyramids of Giza outside Cairo.
The fifth edition of the contemporary art exhibition “Forever is Now” is due to run to December 6.
The 92-year-old Pistoletto’s most famous work, Il Terzo Paradiso, comprises a three-meter-tall mirrored obelisk and a series of blocks tracing out the mathematical symbol for infinity in the sand.
“We have done more than 2,000 events all around the world, on five continents, in 60 nations,” said Francesco Saverio Teruzzi, construction coordinator in Pistoletto’s team.
“There is an estimate that it’s more or less five million people reached by the message of the Third Paradise.”
The Franco-Beninese artist King Houndekpinkou presented “White Totem of Light,” a column composed of ceramic fragments recovered from a factory in Cairo.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to converse with 4,500 years — or even more — of history,” he told AFP.
South Korean artist Jongkyu Park used the measurements of the Great Pyramid of Giza to create the geometric structures of his installation “Code of the Eternal.”
A thousand small cylindrical acrylic mirrors planted in the sand compose a Morse code poem imagining a dialogue between Tangun, the legendary founder of the first Korean kingdom, and an Egyptian pharaoh.
Farto, better known as Vhils, collected doors in Cairo and elsewhere in the world for a bricolage intended to evoke the archaeological process.
Six other artists, including Turkiye’s Mert Ege Kose, Lebanon’s Nadim Karam, Brazil’s Ana Ferrari, Egypt’s Salha Al-Masry and the Russian collective “Recycle Group,” are also taking part.
