When the Weather Becomes a Game

British Broadcasting Corporation weather forecast presenters will be using three-dimensional online game technologies to give TV viewers closer looks at real-time precipitation and cloud covers. “We are trying to take weather data and generate weather graphics on a 3D map that actually looks like the weather,” said Colin Tregear, project director at the BBC’s Weather Centre. The BBC’s old weather graphics system took three to four hours to prepare each 1-minute 30-second forecast on flat map displays that used weather icons. “You will see them on a map for eight hours covering 200 miles. It is pretty imprecise,” Tregear said. The new system, based on game technologies, gives each TV weather presenter his or her own weather graphics systems that can instantly animate and display weather data on three-dimensional reproductions of actual terrain. “We hope that by showing the weather that will actually go over your head, you will know whether it is going to be sunny or cloudy where you are,” Tregear said.

The BBC also hopes to adapt this news weather graphics system for use on the Web, handheld devices, and interactive TV, plus to give viewers the chance to build their own forecasts in the future. Versions of the new TV weather graphics system already are used by Australia’s Nine Network, CNBC stations in Europe, Asia, Dubai, and Turkey, as well as TV stations in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.