Other Queries
We receive hundreds of questions, observations and comments about the weather, our forecasts and other topics. Replying individually to each one is costly and we are sorry that we cannot do so.

To make best use of your licence fee and deal efficiently with your enquiry, we've provided the following answers to the most common questions we're asked at the BBC Weather Centre.

For FAQs about our new look graphics, please see New Graphics - FAQ

Please click on the question below that best fits your problem. Our links will take you to the appropriate information:

Does your issue refer to:

Your query not here? Then please contact us via our feedback page, and we'll do our best to help.

BBC Weather Font Size
BBC Weather is designed to be viewed using a medium font on your browser. If you are finding that the font size is too large or too small, check that the font size in your browser is set at 'medium' so that you can view the site in its 'best' format. For example, in Internet Explorer, font size can be found in 'View' then 'Text Size'.

Refreshing pages
If the pages you are viewing on BBC Weather seem out of date, your web browser may not be updating them. It is probably showing a version of the page cached in the browser's cache.

The BBC Weather site is changed throughout the day, so you need to set your browser to look for the latest pages on the site. Otherwise your browser will look at the last version you viewed, which is saved to the browser's cache. The browser does this to speed up the time it takes to retrieve the requested page.

Some Internet Service Providers and some Local networks have caches set up to save on bandwidth. These caches may be set to refresh every day or every few days rather than every time a user accesses a site.

WAP
BBC Weather offers five day forecasts straight to your mobile though WAP. See BBC Mobile for further information and troubleshooting or contact us through our BBC Feedback page.

Long term forecasting
Forecasting the weather beyond about 5 days ahead stretches even the most experienced weather forecaster. The Met Office runs complex numerical weather forecast models hundreds of times for the month (and season) ahead to build up a picture of the likelihood of different weather types affecting the UK.

For forecasts beyond the next five days, please see BBC Weather's Monthly Outlook page (UK forecast only).

For general climate information, see BBC Weather's World Country Guides and World Average Conditions pages for details on countries, towns and cities around the world.

RSS feeds
We are currently only permitted to show three days of data in the RSS feed. It is called the five day forecast feed because it gives a preview of (and links through to) the five day forecast.

We also have current observations, international weather headline, UK weather headline and UK weather outlook available as an RSS feed.

Check here for our RSS terms and conditions

Holiday weather
If you want to know the weather forecast more than five days in advance of your trip, check BBC Weather's Country Guides, which detail the climate for each country.

Alternatively check out our pages of Average Conditions for hundreds of towns and cities around the world.

If you are going away within the next five days, enter the town or country you are travelling to in the search box on our homepage and click on your destination city or nearest available forecast.

Historical weather information
For a round up of the weather for a specific month, please see our Year in Review pages.

For a round up of the day's weather, see our Daily Review pages.

For historical weather information for a specific day or location, or for weather information for an insurance claim, please contact the Met Office.

For yesterday's UK weather extremes, see our Daily Review page.

Why is the sunrise time still getting later after the winter solstice?
Information on sunrise and sunset times around the winter solstice can be found at Winter Solstice.

How do I set my barometer?
Information on setting your barometer can be found in Setting your barometer.

Work experience
For information on work experience in the BBC see our Work Experience page.

Linking to BBC Weather
If you would like to link to BBC Weather from your own website, you may do so. Please ensure you read our BBC Terms and Conditions.

Shipping Forecast
The BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast music is called "Sailing By" and was composed by Ronald Binge. The version of Sailing By that Radio 4 use is not available commercially. However, a similar recording has been issued by Seaward Records Ltd, Strathallan Castle, Port St Mary, Isle of Man. The tune is also on a CD, The Music of Ronald Binge, from Marco Polo Records, number 8.223515.