On: Met Office loses BBC weather forecasting contract after 93 years

[gioele]

Will the main requirement of the tender be being at least X% more accurate than the current provider?

Or will it just be a matter of who will offer the cheapest service?

[s_kilk → gioele]

If weather predictions are basically fiction (which they seem to be), then we may as well go with the cheapest fiction.

[cryptoz → s_kilk]

Weather predictions are not fiction. Some businesses pay millions for a specific weather forecast (one that could dramatically influence the profitability of a venture) in order to enable better planning. A good example of the importance of weather and climate forecasting would be the Climate Corp sale to Monsanto for ~$1B.

Predicting the future is really really hard. Over the last few decades we've made a lot of progress and we're about to get a lot better, too.