Dogger, Fisher, German Bight
on the North Sea in the night
Force Nine gale, rain in sight
praying for the morning light
Copyright © 2022 Kim Whysall-Hammond
The poetry of the BBC Shipping forecast, broadcast late each night, has filled my adult life from my university days using telescopes, via night feeding babies to now, when I often can’t sleep until well past midnight.
A typical forecast for several sea areas might be;
“Dogger, Fisher, German Bight. Southeast veering southwest 4 or 5, occasionally 6 later. Thundery showers. Moderate or good, occasionally poor.”
What this is telling us is that the sea areas Dogger, Fisher and German Bight are forecast to experience a SW wind direction blowing Force 4 or 5, sometimes F6 later. ‘Later’ is specifically at at time over 12 hours from the time the forecast was issued.
For those of you wondering what the first line of this poem refers to, here is a map of the sea areas covered by the forecast……
Sharing this poem in the Open link Night over at Dverse!
The Cheesesellers Wife 
Fascinating !!
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Thanks! I forgot to mention that I once worked as a weather forecaster.
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It is only through blogging that I have begun to locate these magical names from the radio. Thank you for completing the picture
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Magical is the right word! I was very excited when I got to actually write a real shipping forecast….
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I love the sound and rhythm of this, which does sound like a broadcast from a lighthouse or weather station. Very cool.
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Thanks Sherry, yes those are the rhythms of the actual shipping forecast.
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I love this poem. It works even without the explanation.
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Thanks Suzanne. I do wonder what other countries do….
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I’ve never heard a shipping forecast broadcast on the radio here in Australia. I guess people in boats tune into some kind of broadcast when they are at sea. Today we had really wild weather. I saw a large cargo ship stationary just inside the heads of the bay here while the little coast guard boat plowed out to sea through the waves. Don’t know what it all signified but I guess they were communicating with each other via short wave radio.
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So many people have small boats here in Britain, and are out on the waters in all sorts of weather. So there’s a big audience for the shipping forecast, notwithstanding the fishing boats. And then there are the cargo ships and ferries.
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I listened to the TV weather report last night and realised the ABC does give a shipping forecast but they don’t call it that. It’s just part of the general forecast and says things like ‘gales over the bays and swells to 1 metre’. :)
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Aha! Sorted!
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This is so cool… reminds me of the time I didn’t know any weather words in Tamil but would watch the news on TV with my dad and only understand a storm was coming. Weather is its own language!!!
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It does!
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I’ve heard those broadcasts, they lull and heave with heavy seas.
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Indeed they do!
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A wonderful piece of writing that educates and delights ….
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Thank you Helen!
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Isn’t the shipping forecast wonderful? Even more wonderful if you understand it, I am sure!
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Oh it’s a wondrous flow of words…..
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Indeed! And you made a lovely poem of it 😊
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Smiles bashfully…
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The way it is done there is so much more stylish and with character compared to weather reporters in the U.S. Thank you for sharing the map also!
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😊
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Such an interesting theme to write about! Thanks for sharing at dVerse!
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Thank you Grace.
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Fascinating. I had no idea.
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As they say- you learn something every day! 😊
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I definitely do. The world is an amazing place.
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Yes it is!
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I remember those reports on the Swedish radio… they recently stopped transmitting them. Some of the Northsea names I remember too.
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😊
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I think that there will be an uprising if the BBC stops the shipping forecast!
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It was an uprising but in the end it didn’t help
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