316- The Shipping Forecast

99% Invisible

• Episode: 316- The Shipping Forecast
• Website: 99% Invisible
• Feed URL: http://feeds.99percentinvisible.org/99percentinvisible
• Duration: 00:27:53
• Published: 2018-07-25 04:41

Four times every day, on radios all across the British Isles, a BBC announcer begins reading from a seemingly indecipherable script. "And now the Shipping Forecast issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency," says the voice over the wire. "Viking, North Utsire; southwesterly five to seven; occasionally gale eight; rain or showers; moderate or good, occasionally poor." Cryptic and mesmerizing, this is the UK’s nautical weather report.

The Shipping Forecast