Still safe to cycle — BBC 'really, really sorry' for misleading hurricane force wind predictions

Despite apparent threats of hurricane-level winds and absurd high temperatures, it is still safe to cycle outside in the UK on Thursday, as the extreme weather forecast is the result of a glitch.

If you woke up on Thursday morning, checked the BBC Weather app and thought something was amiss, you weren't alone. On the app, "hurricane force winds" were forecast for much of the UK, with some up to 15,759mph, just 15,544mph above the fastest-ever recorded cyclone. Meanwhile, temperatures were shown as up to 404°C in Nottingham, 347° above the highest-ever recorded temperature.

However, do feel free to get out on your bike today, even if it might be raining, but that should not necessarily put you off. It turns out that the misleading weather is just the result of a bug in BBC Weather's data, supplied by MeteoGroup.

If the data was right, it might have been the day to cycle with a tailwind and smash some Strava records - although really, if the winds were that high, it would probably not be worth your while doing very much at all. Reassuringly, for our British readers, winds are not forecast to be anything particularly special on Thursday, although they are not exactly low either.

On BBC Breakfast, the BBC's flagship morning news show, presenter Naga Munchetty asked weather presenter Carol Kirkwood what was occuring.

"Lots of people are getting in touch this morning, as I’m sure you’ll be aware as well at the weather centre," she said. "The BBC app is giving some rather confusing information. Can you explain it?"

Kirkwood replied: "It certainly is, we’re 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. We are, as you say, well aware of it and we are on it, we’re trying to fix it right now, so hopefully that will sort it out."

In a statement on Thursday morning, BBC Weather 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.

"We recognise there is huge interest in weather today and this is incredibly frustrating.

"We are really, really sorry about this and working very hard to fix the problem."

People in the USA are currently experiencing real extreme weather through Hurricane Milton, which has left more than two million homes without power, while bringing “catastrophic” winds likely to cause significant property damage.