We aim to assist you with strategic planning and operational activities to help you be better prepared to deal with these issues and keep a steady supply of water to your customers.

We have a number of research consultants ready to work with you to find solutions to your business challenges. Our consultants can quantify the relationship between weather parameters and pipe leakage for specific soil and pipe types in your region. We can develop weather and climate services which are designed specifically to meet your needs, improving your business performance.

Weather intelligence models

The Met Office and Thames Water have signed a joint agreement to launch a suite of weather intelligence models for the water industry. We have adapted models developed by Thames Water so they can be applied across the water industry to anticipate the effect of the weather on the distribution network.

By assessing past weather data Thames Water has been able to track leakage, demand, pipe bursts and seasonal night use over the past year. In areas where there were high instances of leakage or pipe burst they targeted areas that experience supply problems and prioritised maintenance work. They can also optimise resources and improve planning and risk management.

Benefits to the water industry

• Access to four operational and strategic weather intelligence models, enabling the weather component of leakage, burst, demand and seasonal night use to be understood and addressed.
• Opportunity to use these models with Met Office weather forecasts to make operational resourcing decisions and cost savings in the business.
• Ability to use the model outputs to manage risk across the water distribution network.

Weather intelligence model trials - Following successful pilots with other companies, which have shown some excellent results, we are looking for other companies to trial these weather intelligence models. Contact water@metoffice.gov.uk to find out how they could benefit your business.