What are the “probabilities of precipitation”?
The Plain English Society would prefer the expression “rain is likely”.
But the Meteorlogical Office explains: “Precipitation covers a wide range of stuff falling from the sky including rain, sleet, snow, hail, drizzle and even cats and dogs – but sums it up in just one word.”
So, what matters more: simplicity or precision?
More on this story here.
December 11th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
This is one instance where I entirely agree with the Met Office. As they explain “precipitation” covers all manner of falling stuff, so to replace it you would need to say rain or maybe sleet or drizzle or even snow or hail is likely. If they just stuck to “rain”, people would say they’d got it wrong again if it actually sleeted or snowed where they were.
OK, I’m a geographer by training so “precipitation” isn’t a scary word for me, but during teaching practice for my PGCE, I did manage to get a group of sheet metal workers (who really didn’t want to know) to understand the old style weather forecasts (you know, the ones that had isobars)!
December 12th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Fair enough, Janet, but couldn’t the Met Office say something like: “Rain or sleet is likely” or “Snow or even hail is probable”.