Weather Forecasts

Huge efforts have been made to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts in recent years. Forecasters now claim to be able to accurately predict the weather with varying degrees of accuracy for days, weeks or even months ahead. What do you think about weather forecasting? How accurate are the long range predictions produced by TheWeatherOutlook or by others? How accurate do you think the UK Met Office and BBC are? Are forecasters guilty of being overly pessimistic and hyping up the possibility of severe weather in the UK?