WEATHER forecasters once again had trouble predicting the weather for sunny Bournemouth.

Tourism chiefs spoke out after the last Bank Holiday weekend, when a gloomy forecast from the weathermen turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year cost the town thousands as people stayed away.

And this last weekend was a similar story.

On Wednesday the BBC website was forecasting sunny intervals on Saturday and heavy rain on Sunday.

On Thursday it reported heavy rain showers on Saturday and sunny intervals on Sunday.

But by Friday it was singing a different tune – sunny intervals both days.

The reality was better still with sunshine and clear skies through both days in many areas.

Weather expert, Dr Richard Wild, of Weathernet, said he had forecast a sunny weekend for Dorset – but the BBC website was not the most reliable source of weather information in his view.

He said: “It’s always very difficult to predict showers. We’re not hedging our bets, but we would say both are possible.

“Trying to narrow it down to showers in just Bournemouth or Weymouth or Dorchester is very difficult – on a global perspective they are very small places.”

He said the weather was set to stay fine this week – with an even better weekend ahead with temperatures of around 21-22C.

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