Storm brewing over wrong forecast for Bournemouth

Bournemouth accused the Met Office of losing it £1m because it got the weather forecast wrong on Bank Holiday Monday.

The seaside resort in Dorset was supposed to suffer thundery showers, according to the Met Office, but instead it had sunshine and was the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures hitting 22 degrees.

However, because of the "negative" prediction for rain, tourism bosses said around 25,000 visitors stayed away from the town.

Mark Smith, head of Bournemouth Council's tourism department, said: "We do suffer badly from inaccurate weather reports.

"The forecast was for thundery showers throughout the day but after 9am it remained bright and sunny and was the hottest day of the year so far.

"The average amount spent by visitors per head is £41, so even for one day that cost us over a million pounds."

Met Office spokeswoman Helen Chivers said it did get the forecast for Bournemouth wrong.

"The forecast was for a bright start, clouding over with showers, heavy and thundery in places, during the morning and continuing throughout the afternoon," she explained.

"We get observations from satellites and local stations and all of that goes into the computers, and you take the best guidance out of that.

"For the weekend we were looking at developments over France and they had some particularly nasty thunderstorms."