Magazine - Beat the winter weather

29 Dec 2005 by Grassman2011

Dave,

I do not want to appear to be ungrateful, but us mere mortals at recreational level have to rely on forecasts that come free of charge. We do not have the money available for top information.
To this end, i have to say that i am generally dissapointed with the free weather service that i get for our area from this site.
Very rarely does it appear to get close to what we actually get, unless the whole country is bathed in days of glorious sunshine, i wish, or that the whole country is getting a drowning.
Is there anything that you can do about this?
I want to look at it, but it is almost a waste of time.
Happy New Year. Gordon.

29 Dec 2005 by Dave

Happy New Year to you to Gordon,

The free service provided is a generic forecast from a different company to John Kettley and the boys and is similar to the BBC etc as a 'conveyer belt' forecast in that it generalises an area by the first three digits of a postcode. That means that the weather station could be up to 40 miles away from where you are actually based-not ideal.

However that said, for most it is the only way of obtaining a forecast and on the whole people give us good feedback which is why we have continued using this data feed from the said company. It actually costs Pitchcare around £200 per month to provide it to the members free of charge.

I will ask why your forecast in Bath seems to be wayward in the New Year.

Even so, the cost of a phonecall for a fiver seems to be a small price to pay even for non-league grounds, when supporters travel, clubs incur transport costs and even player wages.

I put this article on today, because I did a little piece for Talk Sport Radio about the seventeen postponements last night and felt that others may find it useful to contact a duty forecaster if there is an important fixture imminent.

In my capacity as project manager at Wolves, we rely, like many others, on professional forecasts to determine the correct course of action. In the last few days we have had internal debates about whether to 'rain' cover the pitch, have the undersoil heating on, aerate, put frost protection covers on etc etc, obviously liasing with the duty forecaster allows us to make those informed decisions.

Cheers,
Dave

29 Dec 2005 by Grassman2011

Dave,
Thanks for such a quick response. My sport is cricket, and where i find it most useful, but where it lets me down the most, is in its foreward projection, a vital time for me in pitch preparation. I am surprised when you say it gives similar information as the BBC, because that is the forecast that i find to be the most reliable. However, i generally make an opinion based on several forecasts and i have to say, i do not seem to go far wrong, but it still always rains at the wrong time. I am sure you know what i mean. Keep up the good work. Could you kindly wish Laurence and Ellie a Happy New Year for me.
Thanks, Gordon.

29 Dec 2005 by Dave

Hi Gordon,

I will of course pass on your best wishes to Loz and Ellie.

One small point, I didn't say that our forecast necessarily gives similar information to that of the BBC. I was suggesting that the BBC amongst other postcode type services provide a generic forecast based on an area as a whole as opposed to a site specific forecast.
Our free forecast provided by a third party work the information from their own charts and computer simulations to provide the data.

Cheers!
Dave

29 Dec 2005 by bertbert

Would this forecast have saved last nights games? I think not-so called problems with undersoil heating cant be cured with a forecast, neither can heavy snow falling on covers that are in turn too heavy to move once covered in three to four inches of snow-in this job you can only rely on yourself and nothing else.

29 Dec 2005 by Dave

That Bert, depends on which games you are talking about.
Where the undersoil heating failed then no it wouldn't, but then that is an irrelevancy about the forecast isn't it.

At Newcastle, despite the snow and the Groundstaff's hard endeavours, the game was called off by the Safety Officer and the Police who deemed the access roads dangerous for supporters.

Where forecasts can help, is letting a Groundsman decide whether to turn on a heating system, put out a rain cover or lay frost covers on wear areas through the middle or across the whole surface.
There are times when you take all necessary precautions and the weather doesn't do as predicted.

At the end of the day a good Groundsman will call upon all information available to hand to make an informed decision, as a professional you try to cover all the bases, so when things do go wrong you are able to answer the inevitable questions that come after.

Hindsight is wonderful, and is usually used by antagonistic people looking to cause distress after the event. All the good Groundsmen limit the damage that can occur post cancellation, by taking all necessary precautions in advance.

30 Dec 2005 by Anonymous

Quote from the BBC website:

That appeared to conflict Premier League spokesman Dan Johnson's comments to BBC Radio Five Live earlier on Thursday.

He had said: "We try to ensure holiday games are as close as possible. But there are not enough derby fixtures to go around.


Then given problems up and down the country for all levels of games was this not the case? An example of the Premier League games that should have been played could be:

Liverpool/Everton
Arsenal/Spurs
Man City/Man Utd
Chelsea/Fulham
Villa/Birmingham
Newcastle/Birmingham
Charlton/West ham
Bolton/Blackburn
Sunderland/Wigan
WBA/Portsmouth

These games could have been reversed and the teams play each other twice over this period home and away, as with non league games that already have this in practice and have done for a number of years. Whilst the last two arent exactly local, lets face it next season it could be slightly different given the league table:

Sheff Utd/Wigan
WBA/Reading

!!!!!!!


If the games were kept local it would save all arguments if games were called off and save a lot of stick for the groundstaff-we played a team the other day that are 200 miles away from us and despite undersoil heating, the temperature had dropped to minus 5 by the end of the game and the grass was becoming a little crunchy by this time-had the temperatures have dropped any lower then who knows what may or may not have happened-a wasted journey for everyone.

30 Dec 2005 by BC

YOU FILL UP MY SENSES
LIKE A GALLON OF MAGNET
LIKE A PACKET OF WOODBINES
LIKE A GOOD PINCH OF SNUFF
LIKE A NIGHT OUT IN SHEFFIELD
LIKE A GREASY CHIP BUTTY
LIKE SHEFFIELD UNITED
COME FILL ME AGAIN
NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH OOOOO!!!!!

SHEFFIELD UNITED IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE NEXT YEAR, I SEE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. ONLY NEXT YEAR MINUS EVERTON, SUNDERLAND AND BIRMINGHAM.

I intend to live forever, so far so good...

2 Jan 2006 by Paul Barnett

I at Gretna FC would like to comment on the Pitchcare weather service. We use Pitchcare weather at least two/ three times a week leading up to games, or when wanting to carry out works etc , I must say they have been very efficient and accurate with their forecasts.

3 Jan 2006 by rammie

THATS ALL I NEED A GRUNTER ON THE SITE!
DERBY OWL.

11 Mar 2006 by Grassman2011

Dave, i hope you are keeping well. There appears to be more unrest about the reliability of the forcasting on this site. I have printed of my forcast for this coming week so that i can compare. Will let you know the result.

11 Mar 2006 by Dave Last edited 11 Mar 2006

Hi Bath,

I'm well thanks, I trust that you are too?

The forecast is provided by a third party whom we at Pitchcare pay a monthly fee. I have since we last corresponded had a meeting with a different forecasting company and we may change to them subject to their costs.

That doesn't mean we are skimping, because for many, these free forecasts are quite accurate. As I stated before, the post code forecast covers a large area of 40 sq miles, and if you happen to be at the further edges of that weather station, you may well experience different weather patterns than those on the other side of the county.

I have been at Wolves all this week, and while we have followed teletext, TV and radio as well as internet, we have also been in constant contact with the duty forecaster-Jim Dale. With a game on Tuesday night, and todays game against Cardiff we have had to contend with plenty of rain. Jim gave me the information on Tuesday to make me leave the rain covers off the pitch, despite internal consternation at the club. (At Tuesday lunchtime the pitch was a lake).
We then covered the pitch on Wednesday, removing them on Friday based again on Jim's expert advice. Today the pitch played well, and we even managed to get the mowers on ths morning to firm the surface and get some presentation back in.

It's a shame that the Cardiff City supporters spoilt what was otherwise a great afternoon.