Shipping Forecast excluding the header line, has a limit of 350 words—except for the 0048 broadcast, where it is increased to 380 to accommodate Trafalgar's inclusion—and has a very strict format. It begins with "And now the Shipping Forecast, issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at xxxx today." This format is followed quite strictly, although some continuity announcers read out the actual date of issue as opposed to the word "today". This is followed by gale warnings (winds of force 8 or more on the Beaufort scale), if any (e.g., "There are warnings of gales
Southerly Buster southerly's arrival. Southerly busters occur about 32 times each year on the coast of southeastern Australia, with variable strength, usually in spring and summer. Although southerly busters are oftentimes associated with NSW and Victoria, they would also betide the east coast of Tasmania, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile. They are known as ‘backdoor fronts’ in North America, and ‘Spanish plumes’ in Europe. On hot afternoons in the late nineteenth century, before the days of radio, the Sydney Observatory would fly a flag bearing the letters "JB" to indicate that the southerly buster had reached Jervis Bay, about 150 km to