The BBC has reassured the public after users were warned of ‘Hurricane-force winds’ set to batter Scotland today.
The broadcaster’s weather website and app are currently experiencing a data glitch, showing very strong wind speeds across large parts of the country.
On Thursday morning, users were told Glasgow was facing ‘hurricane-force winds’ coming from the northeast, with estimated wind speeds of 14,700mph.
There was also a warning for other parts of the country including an estimated wind speed of 10,777mph in Aberdeen and 15,319 in Inverness.
BBC Scotland Weather took to social media to issue the following statement: “Don’t worry folks, there isn’t a hurricane on the way today for Scotland, and Edinburgh isn’t going to see wind gusts of an impossible magnitude of 17246mph! There is a major error in the data being ingested into the app, and this is being looked at and hopefully correctly ASAP!”
BBC weather presenter Matt Taylor also rushed to social media to reassure members of the public of the data glitch.
In a post on X, he wrote: “Don’t be alarmed folks – Hurricane Milton hasn’t made it to us here in the UK. There’s been a data glitch between our suppliers and the app/online. Folk are working to solve the issue.”
The blunder caused the BBC’s weather presenter, Simon King, to share: “Be assured there won’t be 14,408mph winds, hurricane force winds or overnight temperatures of 404°C.
“It is being looked at and hopefully sorted ASAP.”
BBC Weather currently has a warning on their website which reads: “We’re experiencing issues with our forecast data. We’re working to resolve it.”
It comes as the US state of Florida is being battered by Hurricane Milton which has grounded flights and forced millions to move upstate in order to get out the way of the storm.
Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida at about 8.30pm local time. The US National Hurricane Centre reports the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 120mph.
About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was centred about 20 miles (30 kilometres) northeast of Sarasota and had weakened slightly with maximum sustained winds of 110mph (175ph), becoming a Category 2 storm, the hurricane centre reported.
The US National Weather Service has issued the highest level of flood warning to more than two million residents within Milton’s path.
Blackouts from the damaging storm have plunged more than 2 million people into darkness so far, as per the electrical fault website poweroutage.us.
Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and Tui are among the airlines to have cancelled flights between the UK and Florida.
A number of airports in Florida have closed to commercial operations, including Orlando International, Melbourne Orlando International and Tampa International.
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