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. there's hardly any on the surface here, but it has frozen up and got slippery and caused chaos on this road this morning. danny savage, and before him, lorna gordon and ben brown earning their crust there. 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 in that sort of weather, when it's quite easy, like myself here, as you can see,

you can see the snow behind me, but i'm still indoors, reporting this to you. others questioned whether the bbc news‘ interest in the weather had something to do with geography? willie from carlisle put it like this... but the main complaint this week was about the sheer 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 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 on the news. i've been prompted to contact newswatch because i watched the bbc 6pm news on tuesday, i think it was, and we went through the entire show without once mentioning the huge, 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 trapped in snowdrifts. but while children are playing

and tobogganing in the uk, they are playing in bunkers and underground in syria. plenty to talk about there with the controller of bbc news channels, thank you for coming on newswatch. no—one is saying that snow wasn't a big story, but in the grand scheme of things, there's a strong concern it came at the cost of a lot of serious news coverage that should have had more prominence on air? i think when you look at the 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,

i think, 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 online 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 the 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 snow 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 overhyped 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 an 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 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 a 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 hardy, 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. hello again. there is not as much snow falling now and attention turns to the icy conditions. it is still quite treacherous out there for many of us. gradually over the weekend we should slowly see it turn milder, less cold from the south. there will still be a wintry mix of rain, sleet and some snow. that really cold air with high pressure across scandinavia and siberian winds, that has moved away.

instead, our weather will be coming in from areas of low pressure spinning to the south of the uk. ahead of that we still have the cold easterly wind for a while across scotland but gradually we will replace it with something a little less cold from the south or south—west. but still bring a wintry mix nevertheless. that is what we have at the moment. it is still cold out there, still frosty at the moment with a widespread frost and given the snow cover and some snow falling in places as well as that earlier freezing rain it will be very icy indeed. as we move through saturday there is still snow falling for awhile across northern england and northern ireland. that peters out. north of that, snow showers in scotland on that cold easterly wind. the winds are lighter to the south with some sunshine and wet weather developing in the south. focused towards the south—west and into wales, mostly rain but some snow over the hills of wales. at least those temperatures are just getting above freezing. still cold but possibly six or seven across southern parts of england. this is where we have the focus of the wettest weather on saturday evening.

rain for the most part but there will be snow over the hills of wales, developing through the midlands over the peak district and onto the pennines as that wetter weather moves north. we still have some cold air around, maybe some frost and some icy patches are quite likely as well. that wintry mix of rain, sleet and mostly hill snow across northern england will move slowly northwards into southern scotland, still some snow showers in the far north of the country. to the south, a bit of sunshine perhaps but not lasting long because we will get these areas of heavy rain developing across parts of wales and then a little snow over the high ground. it is mostly rain. quite heavy in fact. temperatures are about eight or nine degrees. the northern half of the uk reaching for five, not warm but better than it has been. these weather fronts continue to push their way northwards. everything spinning around areas of low pressure to the south and south—west of the uk. the wind, we lose that easterly and the wind will be lighter.

there will be sunshine in the outlook. temperatures will be better than they have been. not warm yet, those numbers are below average for this time of year. sunshine, but also some showers. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: underfire: president trump's plan to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium is condemned by trading partners — including canada. the integrated nature of our supply chains means that there will be significant disruption. in canada, obviously, but also in the united states. war crimes are being committed on syrian civilians in eastern ghouta, says the un. it calls for those responsible to be prosecuted. snow blizzards bring chaos across europe. at least 60 people have died in sub—zero temperatures. and britain's prime minister sets out her hopes for brexit. eu officials say her speech lacked details.