I HAVE always watched the weather forecasts since my days of boat fishing for more than 30 years off the North-East coast and have been surprised at how many times the forecasters have got it wrong. Many times when the got it correct, they could not get the timing right. Sometimes they were up to half or a full day out.

This week alone it has been incorrect quite a few times and it is only Wednesday.

Last weekend’s forecast of very hot weather – well, I had to put my heating on.

When you think about all the satellites, computers etc they have now to predict the forecasts I think they are doing a very poor job.

Watching the D-Day celebrations, I learned it was very difficult indeed to forecast the weather 75 years ago due to their equipment. It is quite amazing that the meteorologists could predict an eight hour gap between the bad weather systems so the invasion could go ahead.

I think if D-Day had been in the hands of our present forecasters, we would all be speaking German.

John Rusby, Bishop Auckland