one story this week has dominated television news output and the newswatch inbox too, so we will be focusing on this programme is what has been widely dubbed as — well, let's hear the phrase used by bbc presenters. now, it's been billed as the beast from the east, a freezing weather front sweeping in from russia this week. are you ready for the beast from the east? weather blowing in from russia is set to make parts of the uk colder than the arctic. the blast of bitterly cold weather over the last couple of days has come from siberia. the beast from the east, as it's been called. but should the bbc have given that nickname further currency? no, thought a number of viewers, including mike. the beast from the east — why have the bbc adopted this trashy, tabloid headline for the recent weather? surely the bbc news is above such a ridiculous description? more and more, we seem to be lowering journalistic standards in order to entertain and maintain viewer figures. and ian tweeted along similar lines... and that charge of hysteria was made

more widely, for instance, by a viewer called linda... and gill agreed... another issue of concern was the wisdom of sending reporters and camera crews out to face the elements around the country. the weather today is brutal. there's freezing temperatures across pretty much the whole of scotland, and when the wind blows, it feels much colder than that. it's pretty brutal here at the moment, i have to say. we've had blizzard conditions,

subzero temperatures, winds of around 40mph. it's —8 at the moment. what this illustrates is how little snow is needed to cause a problem. but danny was one of a number of people to pose this question... why do we continue to humiliate our weather forecasters and reporters by subjecting them to outside broadcasts in such terrible weather? recently, during the infamous beast from the east, the reporters were standing outside in all conditions, covered in snow. sometimes in treacherous conditions, standing next to the road or even in the road, where there was traffic trying to pass. they quite easily could have been

knocked over by cars skidding. it makes no sense to me why they have to be out but the main complaint this week was about the shear quantity coverage of the weather. andrew was one of those who thought the bbc went well over the top. it was samueljohnson who said, when it two englishmen meet, the first thing they do is talk about the weather. but i think we do take it to extremes of the amount

of coverage we've had in the last couple of days. every ten minutes, with a five—minute warning about the apocalyptic snowfall coming up. one good thing about this is that it has taken brexit off of the main news for a time. oh, no, i tella lie — as i look now i can see they're talking about brexit on the tv. so you can't have everything in one go. yes, brexit certainly featured on bbc news this week, as did syria. but paul pointed out that the extensive weather coverage meant less time given to that unfolding crisis. you may have noticed it's been snowing in the uk, there's been a lot about it the news. i've been prompted to contact mewswatch because! watched-the emerging humanitarian disaster that is eastern ghouta in syria. there was lots of footage

of children playing in the snow, of reporters standing by motorways with abandoned vehicles and lorries e them in the grand schemeref thingsr at the cost of a lot of serious news coverage that should have had more prominence on air? i think when you look at this scale and severity of the disruption seen this week, you can see why we gave the snow story the prominence we have. in fact, much of that are still ongoing. the fact is we have had two red weather warnings from the met office — red means risk to life — two on the same day in different parts of the country, speaks, ithink, to the scale of the weather

disruption that was coming. disruption to public services, to transport services — we have had seen people being stuck on motorways and trains overnight and that's in spite of all the warnings given. so we approached the story saying, we know it's going to disrupt peoples lives, we ought to warn of that and report what happens. that's what we have done this week. in terms reporting what happens, the viewers were saying that public interest would have been adequately served with less sheer numbers of minutes. more than ten minutes of the top of the 6pm, three days in row, tuesday, wednesday and thursday. one of the viewers there referring to the fact that syria did not get a mention on tuesday, he felt, properly? another way of looking at the figures is how large the viewing figures for the story have been either on the television or digital platforms. we know on thursday night, almost 9 million people watched their regional bulletin around england. we know the story has been widely read on line with traffic up 20% on many days. four of the top ten stories on any

given day being the snow story. we know the viewing figures to the bbc news channel had been consistently high all week. therefore, audience interest in the story is there. as for other stories, i could point to a considerable coverage of brexit throughout the week. with regards to syria, jeremy bowen spoke about syria on sunday's 10pm news and hopes for a ceasefire. eastern ghouta was the lead story on the radio 4 bulletins on tuesday morning, it continued to feature throughout our coverage throughout the week, and jeremy bowen is in damascus now. so i think we have managed to balance the snow story with all the other major news events that have been going on. another issue that many viewers raised was that bbc news only really got interested in giving the sonow a lot of coverage when it hit the southeast? i don't think that's true. actually, we were warning people throughout the weekend this event was coming. i think it started in the southeast, but we were also able to say, on wednesday night, for example, when there was particularly severe disruption in scotland and northern and eastern england, that's where the bulletin

coverage began, in those parts of the country. and it's interesting to note that today, glasgow has reported the snowfall they have had in that part of the world was the worst ever at the airport. i think that speaks to the scale of the disruption. so the fact that glasgow was top of the coverage on wednesday evening was appropriate, i think. some viewers felt that, even though there were amber and red warnings from the met office, that most of the population wasn't in any danger at all, and perhaps the bbc over hyped the fear? we have to report the severe weather warnings when they come. and when you have two red warnings in the same day, i think the last red warning we had for snow was five years ago, here we had two on the same day, we have agreement with the met office that we will report those things. we report them from the point of view of what the potential disruption will be and then from what has actually happened. people who have either been trapped in their cars overnight or on trains, as we discussed earlier. i think what we've done there is report both proportionally the potential danger

to people and the consequence of what's happened. the phrase the beast from the east — too tabloid, overdramatic? well, we didn't coin the phrase beast from the east. you've used it, a lot. we've used it when it seemed appropriate. it hasn't tended to be used in our actual weather forecasts, from a meterological standpoint. it's helpful in one regard, in that it tells people this is a significant weather event that is coming. it also tells them where it's coming from, from siberia. and we were able to tell people that this was notjust going to be snow or ice, it's going to be the wind and extreme cold. i think one of the features of this week has been how cold it has been and, on our new digital products, our website and app, we are a able to give people a feels—like feature, which tells people what the weather conditions are going to be. was it really necessary or a sensible use of licence—fee payers' money to send armies of crews out to do all those lives, often in white—out conditions?

i'm not sure it was armies. we worked very closely with our colleagues around the nations of the uk and the english regions to make sure those deployments are proportional. actually, there's been an awful lot to report on. we've sent people out where we think there's story to cover. actually, some of those people have been in trafficjams themselves, they are perfectly well—equipped and trained, they are with colleagues who can make sure they are safe. we take their safety extremely seriously, so i think some of the work those people have done has been pretty hard, pretty plucky and very impressive. on safety, a lot of viewers complained in particular about sian lloyd being made to stand what looked quite precariously close to speeding lorries, and it might even have been possible she was standing in the road — there were abandoned cars behind her, it was hard to tell. people are concerned that perhaps staff are being put in danger unnecessarily? i'd like to reassure people that is not the case. we take their safety extremely seriously. as i say, from the point of view of how well they are equipped, so they're suitably warm. also they have colleagues with them to make sure

they are safe at all times. they are all highly trained and we have very strict protocols around that, so i hope i can reassure people on that one. thank you so much. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs or even appear on the programme, you can contact us on... do have a look at our website for previous interviews, the address is... that's all from us, we'll be back to hear your views on bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. good evening, yet another day of destructive snowfall across many parts of the uk. going through the weekend, some of that snow should begin to thaw. slowly, very slowly,

it will marry mass a little less soundly. wintry showers, and mixture of rain, sleet and snow. this band of rain, sleet and snow. this band of snowfall has been pushing northwards and we have had freezing rain across the south. all the world, snow has continued in northeast scotland and north east england. the showers continuing overnight. this band of snow will wea ken overnight. this band of snow will weaken across the midlands and into northern england and northern ireland. a chilly night for the majority, icy stretches and potentially fog patches as well. over the last few days, we have been bringing our cold over the last few days, we have been bringing ourcold air over the last few days, we have been bringing our cold air in from the east. was that influence now, and it this area of pressure to the south west driving things into the weekend. that is why, slowly but surely, things will turn less chilly. through saturday, this band

ofa chilly. through saturday, this band of a patchy snow pushing northwards, and to the south, showery rain working in. most of this will fall as rain, temperatures in the far south west creeping upwards. still only up to three degrees further north. on saturday, this wet weather, still snow over the hills, and on sunday, continuing to drift across parts of northern england. again, snow over high grounds, but more like rain near the coast, still snow showers across the north east of scotland. by this stage, temperatures higher, up to 8 degrees. nothing to write home about for this time of the year, but not nearly as cold as recently. low— pressure nearly as cold as recently. low—pressure still dominant down towards the south west, not so many isobars on the chart, so not particularly windy, but with this winds, we will draw in slightly less cold air. is looking at the

temperatures into the coming week, double digits across parts of the south. taking a little while to turn less cold further north. this is bbc news. the headlines... storm emma meets the beast from the east and wreaks chaos across the uk — tonight more than 13,000 customers are without power in the south west of england, south wales and the midlands. at least 3,500 drivers were stranded on the m62 across the pennines last night, with more roads remaining closed throughout today. this is a problem area and this is particularly bad. disruption to realnetworks, passengers had to spend the night on trains, south eastern, south—western and scotrail have advised people not to travel on their routes. we will have the latest from across the uk. theresa may sounds a note of pragmatism in a major speech

outlining the sort of deal she wants with the eu after brexit.