THE Met Office has faced scrutiny from the public in recent months and years over the reliability of some of its forecasts.

And some of the most recent weather warnings have also been questioned. One Tonedale resident sent a message to a reporter at the Wellington Weekly News this week, and said: “No snow in Tonedale. So much for the amber Met Office snow alert last night (Wednesday, January 8).

Since the start of the New Year, large parts of Somerset and the rest of the UK have been inundated with various warnings for ice and snow. I understand the warnings are issued ahead of a predicted risk, but it seems swathes of the county are wrapped into the zone affected by the warning with only small pockets of the county actually experiencing the worst of the weather. The amber warning was issued for Somerset from 2.27pm until 9pm - with only an hour of heavy snow forecast for Wellington at 6pm. There was some snow, but how heavy it fell is debatable.

Weather is changing but I fear warnings are being issued far too frequently with the public at large becoming increasingly different, undermining the reason of a weather warning being issued in the first place.