Met office 'cost tourism thousands'

The man behind a sheep-racing attraction in Devon is considering suing the Met Office after “overly pessimistic” forecasts allegedly cost him thousands of pounds.

Rick Turner, who runs The Big Sheep, said people who saw the forecasts from the UK's national weather service would have been put off a family day out.

Taking issue with the Met Office's medium-term forecasts, he said: "Over the August bank holiday weekend I remember they forecast a whole weekend of rain with heavy rain on the Saturday. We did not have a drop and were enjoying sunshine and blue sky all day. This will have cost the tourism industry here in the South- west millions of pounds and my business thousands."

The Met Office responded: "Devon is one of the wettest counties in England, and the Met Office cannot stop it raining."