Soothing Noises from the BBC Shipping Forecast

The Met Office’s Shipping Forecast Key announces weather conditions in 31 areas around the UK. For internet users, real-time info is now available for each area via a handy-drop down

But it's the radio broadcast which has soothed me on many an anxious evening. Here’s five hours worth: https://youtu.be/CxHa5KaMBcM

They use a highly structured, compact format limited to 370 words:

• Time and Date of the active forecast being read
• List Gale Warnings current around the British Isles
• General Synopsis
• Area Forecasts, within each
  • Location
  • Wind direction
  • Wind speed according to Beaufort scale
  • Precipitation
  • Visibility
• Inshore Waters Forecast

The Beaufort Scale provides vivid descriptions of different wind patterns, as befits a tool standardized before radio or photography. For example,

Wind force 5, also known as "Fresh Breeze," is 29-38 km/h or 19-24 miles per hour or 17-21 knots. You can recognize this force when Small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters. Moderate waves, many white horses. Probable wave height of 2.0 meters, 2.5 meters max, with a "sea state" of 4.

The newsreaders develop a very soothing rhythm—so consistent that many people have created "better sleeping through weather awareness" content on YouTube.

For radio nerds like me, nothing finer than this 30 minute deep dive: The Shipping Forecast: A Beginner’s Guide