Fire at Met Office leaves forecaster struggling to provide weather updates

The Met Office was left struggling to provide weather forecasts yesterday following a fire at its headquarters which prevented automated systems sending out updates.

Staff were forced to ring round organisations and personally give predictions following the electrical blaze in Exeter which happened in the same IT hall as the £97 million supercomputer.

Although the supercomputer itself was undamaged the room in which it is housed was left smoke logged and firefighters had to cut the power while they tackled overheating cables, meaning forecasts could not be broadcast.

The Met Office said there had been ‘some disruption’ to services while the BBC said its weather team had not received the usual data and information that it needed to give its usual updates.

“There has been a fire related incident in our of our IT halls overnight which was quickly brought under control,” said a spokesman for The Met Office.

“No one was hurt and we are now recovering affected systems and bringing them back online and keeping our customers informed.

“Our meteorologists are working hard getting forecasts out.”

The Met Office supercomputer - the Cray XC40 - is used for all its calculations and is one of the most powerful in the world.

It was fully installed in December 2016 and consists of three main systems capable of over 14,000 trillion arithmetic operations per second.

The incident left companies struggling to access up to date forecasts, while many people reported problems using weather apps.

One angry oil rigger currently stranded at sea, wrote on the Met Office’s Twitter feed: "Sort your system out. I'm stuck on an oil rig because the helicopters won't fly unless you sort your system out.

"This is stopping people going home to their families after spending weeks in the middle of the sea.

"I've got a flight booked this afternoon. If I miss I hold you responsible."

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to the Met Office HQ in Exeter just after 2.30am.

An spokesman said: "One appliance from Ottery St Mary which was covering the area was mobilised following a report to the Fire Service Control Room of a fire alarm sounding at the above location.

"On arrival at the scene crew confirmed slight smoke logging in a switch room crews investigating.

"Smouldering cables were identified as causing the smoke logging, the cables were exposed and the supply was isolated by the crew."

The Met Office moved to a new purpose-built, £80million headquarters in Exeter in September 2003, re-locating from Bracknell just short of its 150th anniversary.