The British are notoriously obsessed by the weather. As a result the Meteorological Office at Bracknell in l'il ole U.K. is the only weather bureau worldwide to rival the big one in Washington, D.C.
In the North Sea offshore industry, a keen awareness of weather is not confined to Brits. Operators and contractors in every bordering country keep a regular watch on the North Sea's rough wind and sea conditions.
For years the Met Office has provided regular faxed updates of weather conditions and forecasts.
Now it can send updates to a personal or laptop computer, through its Meteorological Information Self-briefing Terminal (MIST) system.
Colin Hord, MIST project manager, said the system was originally developed to give Royal Air Force pilots up-to-date weather data when they are ordered to scramble.
In partnership with British Aerospace plc, Met Office developed a version for commercial airlines. From this came spinoff products for the offshore and energy markets, said Hord.
Regular updates
Besides regular data from hundreds of weather stations throughout the U.K. and Europe, Hord said many platforms have automatic weather stations that record wind speed, air pressure, and temperature for the Met Office. Ships in a volunteer observation fleet also send data to Bracknell.
"The MIST user's system can be updated regularly," said Hord, "with new data every 15 min, if required, from a host computer that in turn is being constantly updated."
MIST data are displayed in weather radar and symbol formats on maps that show offshore platforms, ports, and nearby towns.
MIST is typically used to give hourly updates of current weather, and predictions of conditions 6-36 hr ahead, in 6 hr increments.
"With MIST we are not trying to convert people into weather forecasters," said Hord. "We enable users to judge if, say, sea conditions are right to move something from one place to another.
"The system enables users to dial up and get weather forecasts, without having to wait for faxed reports or contact the Met Office directly."
MIST can show current and predicted wind speed, wave height and period, and swell conditions. This is useful for planning weather windows for platform installation work and rig moves, for example. MIST can show where and how heavily rain is falling, display codes for cloud types, and show whether precipitation is drizzle, rain, sleet, or one of a number of types of snow.
Lightning data
MIST is used by helicopter operators to provide wind condition data for planned flights and landing conditions at heliports and platforms.
It can also show progress of lightning storms, mark lightning strikes, and give lightning risk forecasts.
"This is useful in the North Sea where there is a lot of whirring metal around," said Hord. "MIST can pinpoint lightning strikes within 4 km, so it can also provide warnings to avoid some work, such as venting gas.
Besides offshore industry companies, Hord said oil and gas company trading rooms have been buying MIST. Some sales are a result of privatization of U.K.'s gas supply market.
"Gas traders in particular like to known if storms and temperature changes are ahead," said Hord, "so they can predict demand changes and resulting jumps in spot gas prices."
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