No, hurricane force winds aren’t forecast across the UK—it’s a BBC weather app glitch

A “technical glitch” with the BBC weather app and website has meant users across the UK have been wrongly shown forecasts of hurricane strength winds.

We’ve seen lots of people on social media post about the forecasts today, though with predicted wind speeds of thousands of miles per hour, most seem to have quickly realised the warnings weren’t real.

BBC Weather has confirmed it is experiencing a problem with its forecast data.

According to the BBC Weather website, Bristol is currently experiencing winds of more than 5,900 mph, while Orkney in Scotland is predicted to have winds of nearly 9,000 mph today.

On BBC Breakfast this morning, weather presenter Carol Kirkwood said: “We are having a technical glitch at the moment, it’s showing wind speeds far too fast, in fact hurricane strength, and of course that is not the case at all, so please do not be alarmed by that. 

“We are aware of it and we are on it trying to fix it.”

In a statement, BBC Weather apologised, and said: “We have an issue with some of the weather data from our forecast provider which is generating incorrect numbers and text on our BBC Weather app and website.

“It’s mainly been impacting wind readings but some temperatures are also displaying wrongly.”