As I write, North West Europe is between storms Austen and Boelo, and listeners to weather forecasts are constantly regaled with threats of wind speeds up to seventy or eighty miles per hour. But frankly, I have little idea what that truly signifies. I fell to thinking. Back in the 1960s the BBC Weather Centre decided to follow the Met. Office practice and make the change to SI, since when our thermometers are graduated in °C, our visibility is expressed in metres, our rain falls by the millimetre and our snow by the centimetre. Why, then, do we cling on to m.p.h. for wind speeds?
Continue reading “Measuring wind speed”Category: Media
Reform UK widely-ridiculed for pledging to “fully re-legalise imperial units”
At a Reform UK press conference this week, Robert Jenrick and Nigel Farage launched a new Reform UK policy document, which includes a pledge to “Fully re-legalise Imperial units”.
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Australia’s successful metrication strategy
There is much to be learned from Australia’s highly successful 1970s metrication programme. In a previous Metric Views article, we looked at two information leaflets produced by Australia’s Metric Conversion Board; Temperature and Pressure go Metric and Motoring goes Metric. Both leaflets were part of intensive public information campaigns in the lead up to “M-days” for weather forecasting and motoring – specific days on which official measurement units switched from the old units to modern metric units.
In this article, we take a look at another of their leaflets, Think Metric – It’s Easy.
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What role did the BBC play in the UK’s transition to the metric system in the 1970s?
It may come as a surprise to many readers that, 50 years ago, the BBC had an Inter-divisional Metrication Committee. It’s precise remit is not clear, but in 1976 it published a 68-page booklet with the intriguing title, Metrication – A Producer’s Guide.
Media blast from the past
In the early years of the Metrication Programme, which began in 1965, the press was not hostile to metrication. They published articles that sounded supportive or neutral. It was only a couple of decades later when metrication progress ran out of steam and the consensus on metrication broke down in the 1980’s that the press turned against metrication. Here we look at some of the earlier and later newspaper articles that reflect the changing attitudes to metrication in the UK.
Continue reading “Media blast from the past”Is the metric system the tool of the (Sea) Devil?
In Matt Groening’s The Simpsons, Grampa Simpson famously decries the metric system as being “the tool of the Devil”.
In Russell T Davies’ latest Doctor Who spin-off science-fiction mini-series, it seems the metric system is the tool of the Sea Devil too.
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Met Office website drops metric wind speeds
The new version of the Met Office’s weather forecasting website no longer has the option to show wind speeds in metric units. All wind speeds are now in mph-only. Previously, users could choose from a list of different units, including metres per second and km/h.
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A “Quite Interesting” mess
If, like me, you are a regular viewer and fan of QI, the BBC’s long-running “Quite Interesting” trivia game show, you are probably frustrated by the seemingly random choice of measurement units that the programme uses to convey the sizes of things. Viewers are expected to be familiar with a whole host of units that haven’t been taught in schools for more than 50 years.
Metric mystery
Nicholas Kerr cries out against the metric mystery which has us using two systems at once.
Recent example shows way to beat hostile press on metrication
On 19 May 2025, the UK concluded a new agreement with the European Union amid cries of betrayal from the pro-Brexit press. While UKMA has no position on UK-EU relations or on this new agreement, it is a case study to show how it is possible to implement policies such as the completion of the Metric Programme, which started in 1965, while resisting attacks from a hostile media.
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