Area(s), Wind Direction, Wind Speed according to Beaufort scale, weather, visibility

The fact that I can click a button and instantly summon 5 hours of the shipping forecast at will is a vindication of the entire twentieth century.

"good, occasionally poor at first" should be my motto

I love how almost every caster says good night at the end of their casts like they know that they're basically reading bedtime stories to sleepy sailors

I paused this when I went to the bathroom so I wouldn't miss anything.

How can you sleep to this? I'm on the edge of my seat!! What's gonna happen next in Humber?!

It’s a little known fact, that, the BBC ‘s shipping, weather service, uses 99% of the U.K.s total annual output, of domestically assembled commas, each year

“How’s life?” “Good, occasionally moderate”

Made redundant, now losing my home, incredibly stressed, anxious and unable to sleep. This was in my recommendations . I grew up listening to radio 4, I'd stay the night at my big sister's little flat she'd always have radio 4 all day and night . I'd snuggle down in bed all cosy pretending I was in a little boat sailing across the sea, Makes me feel very nostagic and safe . Thank you very much for the upload it's helping me sleep 💖✌💕

Nobody: KZfaq Recommendations: 5 HOURS OF BRITISH SHIPPING FORECASTS Edit: I know this was very unoriginal, I am a changed man now

I think the soothing feeling people get from this might be a remnant of our past. There is something soothing about people talking around you as you fall asleep. It's reassuring. The home is guarded. The fire is maintained. Predators are kept away. You are safe.

It’s hilarious that people use the shipping forecast to get to sleep. I spent 7 years working at sea; listening to the shipping forecast several times per day, was a vital part of the job!

as a greek, my uncle used to sail with freight ships around the globe and he would listen to shipping information all the time and would take notes. even today, retired, residing in greece, he listens to the shipping information without writing anywhere. i asked him why do you still listen to it? memories, he answers...

You: Good, Occasionally Poor The guy she told you not to worry about: Good, Occasionally moderate

Imagine listening to this whilst on a boat in the North Sea or North Atlantic, a little bunk bed, tucked up, rain and spray battering the porthole windows. A small hurricane lamp above you swinging casting shadows about the cabin.

As a child I struggled to sleep and my mum took me to docs. they gave her a prescription for a radio ( I kid you not) and suggested I listened to the shipping forecast!! It essentially worked.. I love it to this day….

i like to think that when the world ends, the TV will go, the Internet will be lost, but there will be someone on the radio waves doing the shipping forecast. its the epitome of consistency. no matter what, the shipping forecast happens, and in exactly the same way as it always has.

Mr stark, I don’t feel so good, but occasionally moderate

Just discovered this!!! I was feeling so crap....but now I feel good, occasionally moderate, falling, loosing my identity backing south to south westerly, occasionally very good. ✌🏽

The one for Norway lists 3000km of coastline with islands and inlets and fjords… and it used to be spoken in the local dialects as you moved up the coast. ❤

As an American I have absolutely no idea what is being said but find it relaxing.

Its all part of being British! I listen every morning at 05.20. Don't ask me why, I'm driving a bloody truck nowhere near the sea!!!

I want this played at my funeral.

Playing this the next time my friends want me to choose something to listen to in the car.

God, the internet is awesome! 🥳 Listening to this at 2:13am because I can’t sleep. This makes me feel like when I was a kid and couldn’t sleep… and would just surf up and down my radio dial until I found something weird or interesting to listen to. This is exactly something I would have listened to… every night that I could tune it in.

My friends: Hey you wanna go out tonight? Me: *I need to find out what happens next in Biscay*

Parent: "How are you today son?" Son: "Good, occasionally moderate.

Discussed as a cure for insomnia in today's NY Times. I always find the sound of BBC readers very soothing. Going to try this tonight!

You know, I’m the beginning, I was sure the initial character development wouldn’t add up to much, but by hour 2, I really felt connected with each and every character. The dialogue and story were masterfully written, with gripping, unexpected twists at every turn. I’ll admit, hour 3 was a bit bland, but the lead up to the very end in hour 4 was totally worth. And the bonus minutes at the end really was icing on the cake. Masterfully written, this director is going places!

I’ve had the experience of laying in my nice warm bed listening to the Shipping Forecast thinking ‘thank God I’m not out there tonight!’.......only for my Lifeboat pager to go off 5 minutes later and then be heading 22 miles out into the very storm I’d been smugly thankful for avoiding!

Curled up in bed with my ear to our old Hitachi radio turned low. R4 LW and listening to 'The Hobbit' - book at bedtime and then the headlines followed by the shipping forecast. Rain and wind howling against the window but here I am nice and cosy. All those places incanted like a spell around the coast of our island with gales and storms but I am nice and warm and sleepy. Radio off and time to go to sleep thinking of the sea waves crashing around us and the poor souls having to endure the storm..

In a world of loud, shouty soundbites this is an oasis of reassuring calm.

" Richard, we’re going yachting this weekend. We *need* the shipping forecast. I will not embark on a expedition of this magnitude without taking elementary precautions." -- Hyacinth Bucket

Moving south and losing its identity is just the forecast for my life

Before ASMR videos existed on youtube, even before youtube, I would stay up and tune in to this on my FM radio on my phone to relax to 😂

I remember listening to this sort of thing late at night on a holiday in Britain. We were in a old country holiday cottage and it was windy and stormy one night and we were High up lying in bed and could see town lights in the far distance out the window. Felt so comforting and so British. Stays in my mind.

I was a ship’s captain for 20 years and I remember at the start of my training having to fill in the blank charts with the local conditions 4 times a day , plot the isobars and then you’d try to predict the forecast for the next day by comparing the different snap shots with what you were seeing out of the window.

i fall asleep to this almost every night. there's something oddly soothing about hearing the weather forecast told by someone with a British accent.

Thank you most deeply for making this without advertisements, it is magnificent.

Thank you for this great forecast. I live in the U.S.A., and it's so peaceful. I dream of the seas around your beautiful island.

I think the Shipping Forecast kink in the UK landlubbers is to do with its time of broadcast (0048) and that it almost poetically and rhythmically describes far away places. It's our national lullaby. It's certainly one of our more endearing assets.

I live in England and nowhere in the isles of the UK is anyone more than 70 miles from the sea, as the crow flies. Thank you very much for this, it will soothe me to sleep. I have always loved this forecast since childhood, my family all keen sailors. I love the sea and now I have this to love too! There is a book by Charlie Conelly “Attention All Shipping” where Charlie journeys around areas made famous/familiar by this forecast area. It is entertaining and amusing. Other publications exist to choose from also.

Mrs Bale (the housekeeper of Rocky and Madge in the British sitcom 'As Time Goes By') frequently provides the forecast of the English Channel. There are many people on land in Britain who listen to the shipping forecast even though they never go near the sea. The forecast always takes the same form, a gentle litany of sea areas, wind strength, wave height etc… This is seen by many as soothing. It has become a stereotype that people of a certain age, who listen to Radio 4, will listen to the shipping forecast. It is perceived by many as more accurate than the more glossy television weather forecasts. Mrs. Bale fits into that stereotype and that is the joke.

I love the Shipping Forecast. My sleep is now moderate, becoming good later. :D Thankyou!

Alright KZfaq, I watched the entire thing. Happy now? It was worth it

Oh the joy that once was listening to this,followed by the heartfelt 'goodnight' from the announcer,then the drum roll of the national anthem ❤️ Except that I can never hear it without the smile of a memory from when my oldest son was very small. My best friend at the time was called Gayle,she lived in Somerset on the mainland and we were living on Portland. In those days we used to sometimes get a short bulletin during the day too. Into the kitchen he ran, breathless with excitement.."Gayle's on Portland mummy, Gayle's on Portland!!" He was convinced that the radio had announced her imenent arrival 😂 poor chap was very crestfallen once we'd explained why we all laughing.

As long as there's always the midnight news with bells, then Sailing By then the shipping forecast and finally the anthem, then all is right with the world.

As an Expat Englishman now living in Edmonton Canada and our other properties you wouldn't believe how comforting listening to this is so thanks for this

Valefisk sent me to this beautiful video.

Me: *trying to sleep* Announcer: "silly automatic" My brain: "hee hee *silly* "

Winter's night. Storm outside. A touch of flu. Electric blanket on, duvet up to chin and put on the Shipping Forecast. Life is good again.

This on in the background, starring at my aquarium under my blankets, and knowing that my loved ones are safe is what makes my feel happy at night.

Came to this from tonight's New York Times article celebrating the sleep-inducing properties of this venerable British institution. The invocation of British-adjacent water place names carries a soothing authority; when a then-contemporary broadcast was incorporated into Chumbawamba's track "Good Ship Lifestyle" on their 1997 album, Tubthumping, the recital achieved a tragic stature.

And into the sea Goes pretty England and me Around the bay of Biscay And back for tea Hit traffic on the dogger bank Up the Thames to find a taxi rank Sail on by with the tide And go to sleep And the radio says This is a low But it won't hurt you When you're alone It will be there with you Finding ways to stay solo Up the Tyne, Forth and Cramity There's a low in the high forties Saturday's locked away on the pier Not fast enough, dear And on the malin head Blackpool looks blue and red And the queen, she's gone round the bend Jumped off Land's End And the radio says

S. Utsire, Fisher, German bight and Dogger is also on the Swedish shipping forecast at Swedish Radio P1, together with several stations in Skagerrak, Kattegat, The Baltic Sea and Lake Vänern. Different languages, but very much the same 😁

It takes me back to my childhood, growing up in Ireland. We'd be listening to the BBC and, reluctant to go to bed, would tune into the Shipping Forecast on the Beeb. Ah, those were the days, lol!

So soporific. It takes me back to being a 6 year old in my grandmother's house where Radio 4 was permanently on.

If you enjoy this, you'll love the Tears for Fears song "Pharaohs." It is a very calming instrumental composition built around the reading of a shipping forecast. It was the B-side to the single "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."

American here. First listened to the Shipping Forecast on a meditation app I used to use. Happy to find it again tonight. ☺️

I've heard the shipping forecast at 00:48 on Radio4 millions of times.When I was a teen and I was a milkman,in jail on the radio in the 00's and now I work constant Nightshift in a warehouse.its something that chills me right out without fail.its like a lullaby.'sailing by' is like another national anthem too.🐜

What's missing here is a bit of AM radio distortion and interference to make things more authentic.

The Shipping Forecast has always been so very reassuring …..and not just when sailing . Thank you for this.

Can’t believe I’d never heard of this until now. Have been sleeping with it since I broke a rib and needed a way to not think of the pain. Also love that I’ve been to Ireland, mainland Scotland and Orkney. So love that I know some of the seas. Good night, all, who listen too.

Time was when the BBC Home Service, which became Radio 4 was, along with The Third Programme [classical music and high-end literature], all you could get and it was on Long Wave. So almost everyone with a radio heard the Shipping Forecast every day. Being able to interpret the Shipping Forecast was a module in the 'Yachtmaster Offshore' sailing ticket. In the exam, one was given the area chart as in the article. The examiner then hit 'Play' on a cassette deck and a complete shipping forecast was read [but excluding the inshore forecasts] . One filled in the chart, area by area, according to the info. At the end one should be able to see a weather pattern for the entire area covered by the chart, with the centre of the inevitable depression, the isobars circling around it, with the windspeeds associated with every isobar .... At the end, when we'd handed in out charts to the examiner we all discussed what we'd come up with. "I got a dart board!" "So did I!" "I've failed! My chart was insane!" "No you haven't, Charlie. You passed. And all your dartboards are right. That was the forecast for the 1979 Fastnet Race, with the storm that killed 19 people and sank most of the fleet!" The Fastnet Race is a race from Plymouth, Devon, England around The Fastnet Rock off the coast of southern Ireland [and gives its name to that shipping area] and back to Plymouth. The storm has gone into meteo and sailing legend.

We may not all have the pleasure of being English, however, mariners everywhere exist in solidarity at the mercy of god and the seas, and we can all appreciate the comfortable familiarity of services like the shipping forecast.

'Losing its identity by Tuesday'. Sounds like me on a bad week

Remember the early morning drives to the ferry ports when i was a kid, going back home to Ireland, always around 2-5 am depending on where we were living at the time. This was playing as we drove because many of us were tired and sleepy. Still relaxes me to this day, especially on cold windy wet nights. Knowledge if sailing and experience leads to dreams of the sea.

1:03:28 "I hope you are enjoying your summer. It is 43 in Spain, I'd much rather have the drizzle."

Why is this so mesmerizing? I can't stop listening.

When you listen to the Shipping Forecast on Longwave, the magic becomes even more potent.

Everyone in this thread has one thing in common. We all somehow triggered the youtube algorithm to recommend this to us. Very bizarre.

A great British institution celebrated here! Wonderful just love it!

Welcome to Good, but occasionally poor Burger. Home of the Good, occasionally moderate, Burger.

I grew up listening to this on Radio 4, started in around 1977, I think, some things never change, which is a good thing.

I discovered ASMR with Bob Ross and the BBC on NPR overnights, as a kid. I had no idea why, but I loved the calm, clear audio and it’d knock me out in like 20 minutes. Now the circle is complete

The guy at 2:07:15 has an amazing voice. I hope he does audiobooks, because DAMN!

Thank you for posting this! It's soothing to listen to. I feel like the eccentric country lady on "As Time Goes By" who's addicted to the BBC weather service.

In the extended version of Thomas Dolby's "Windpower", from the early '80s, there's a fragment of a shipping forecast played over the last minute or so of the track. I've listened to it many times but never really had a clear idea of what it was about. The video gives it the context I was missing, and it's kind of neat to notice that the format hasn't changed at all in the intervening 35-40 years. Thanks for this upload!

I had never heard of shipping forecasts before today, I encountered the concept for the first time and had it explained to me this morning. I had no idea this was such a cultural institution in the UK. And now youtube suggests this video to me.

Peter Barker was the best one, very soothing especially when copying the forecast in a rocking and rolling radio room with a bucket wedged between my knees crashing northwards up the Bay of Biscay.

I can't believe this didn't start with "Sailing By"

Thank you SO much for posting this! 🙏 The length means I can let it simply run, which is as in it needs to be for me. A few years ago all I could find on KZfaq were silly spoofs or maybe short snippets. I live in country Victoria, Australia & don't receive the broadcast. Lisa Knapp's song, The Shipping News, is a gem too.

I love a good solid 5 hours of shipping forecasts. Can't beat it

So many characters in this story, and a constantly changing plot and all set around the coastline's of the British Isles!

Imagine a storm losing its identity! “Am I a storm, am I a gale ? I, .............. I just don’t know anymore”

Wow this is brilliant! I really loved listening to the shipping forecasts as a kid. It’s so relaxing.

Oh Oh Oh. How did I stumble upon the BBC Shipping Forecast?? That WAS a long time ago, I believe on Long Wave Radio or something like that. It was ENDLESS when you were 7 years old. It was tagged against the News I remember? 1966 "And now over to the Shipping Forcast!", read by ? We've come a long way since, "This is the voice of the BBC". The Empire, the Strength and Democracy, all wrapped up in the Shipping Forcast. Those brave Sailors, all tuned into the BBC.... Talk about an Empire!. The Radio was the first step into a new world!....................

Now the Quahog weather report. IT'S GON' RAIN!

I'll admit it. When this came up as a rec, I was curious because of Fran on Black Books. I had never heard of shipping reports before then. This is unusually relaxing.

I used to play the shipping forecast to a foreign language student friend of mine as a comprehension exercise. A few beers helped

Sometimes I just love the KZfaq algorithm.Havent heard this since the 1950s when Australia used to get lots of the BBC on our national radio stations.Will be my sleep meditation tonight...Boomer, Dogger, Viking...love it.

never imagined i'd be addicted to a shipping forecast

This is some fire shit thanks KZfaq recommendations playing this at oxford street tonight

I just found this, took me right back to my childhood in the 50's, I always wondered where the Cromarty, Forties and Dogger were, and now I know , thank you for enlightening me !

I love this! It makes me feel good but occasionally poor!

1.4K likes, rising more slowly.

Prayer Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer utters itself. So, a woman will lift her head from the sieve of her hands and stare at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift. Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth enters our hearts, that small familiar pain; then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth in the distant Latin chanting of a train. Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales console the lodger looking out across a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls a child's name as though they named their loss. Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer - Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre. ---Carol Ann Duffy

Just did a long haul 14 hours on the road. Got another 12 hours before I get to bed. I'll be listening to this before sleep though 😴 Couldn't beat it. Thanks for the upload 😊

As an American I have to admit this is a lot nicer than listening to the NOAA'S broadcasts to relax sorry guys!

Cant count how many times ive used this to fall asleep to, their voices are so soothing. Thanks for this upload!