Oxfordshire farm park joins campaign calling for changes to weather app forecasts
Farmer Gow’s says misleading forecasts can affect visitor numbers
An Oxfordshire farm park has joined a campaign calling for changes to the way weather apps display forecasts, saying negative symbols can put people off visiting outdoor venues.
Farmer Gow’s near Faringdon is among more than 80 attractions raising concerns about how forecasts are presented, particularly on popular smartphone weather apps.
Anne Gow, who runs the farm, says many people check the forecast before deciding whether to visit — but the information they see isn’t always accurate for the location they are travelling to.
She said: “As British people, we are fascinated by the weather and very conscious of it, so we use the apps an awful lot to see what’s happening.”
However, she said small geographical differences can mean the forecast shown do not reflect the conditions at the farm.
“If I use the weather app here on the farm it picks up my local town of Faringdon, but actually my closest weather station — and the much more accurate one — is at Watchfield," Anne said.
“There’s a hill in between us and the town so they can have one lot of weather and we can have a different lot.
“The one it defaults to tends to be wetter than my weather, so even on a good day somebody searching for us could get a poorer forecast,” she added.
Anne said that can directly affect visitor numbers.
“If people haven’t been to you before, it can just put them off,” she said. “They’ll go elsewhere and look for somewhere with a better forecast or somewhere that’s indoor-based.”
The issue, she said, affects many businesses that rely on people spending time outside.
“It's not just farm parks, it's pubs that are affected, a tea room with an outdoor seating area - anybody that is trying to encourage outdoors I think is being a little bit unfairly treated by the Met Office. It's too negative."
Anne also believes people should be motivated to spend more time outdoors.
“We all know our health and wellbeing is much better if we’re outside. We spend far too much time indoors,” she said.
“So if a weather app is discouraging people from going out where they’ll actually be healthier as a nation, that’s not good news.”
The campaign has written to the chief executive of the Met Office calling for discussions about how weather data is presented — particularly by third-party apps.
In the letter, attractions say tourism contributes around £147 billion to the UK economy each year, with domestic day trips accounting for more than £50 billion. Research also suggests around 70% of people check the weather forecast before making plans.
Campaigners say they are not questioning the science behind forecasts, but want to explore whether the way information is displayed could be improved.
Suggested changes include splitting forecasts into day and night icons, adding short summaries such as “showers early, brighter later”, or showing a simple percentage of expected dry hours.
Anne says the goal is simply to make forecasts feel less negative while still warning people about severe weather.
“I do fully appreciate that they want to warn people about horrendous weather,” she said. “But there aren’t that many horrendous weather days in the year, and at the moment it’s often portrayed as doom and gloom.
“We just need it to be a little bit more positive.”