Weekly newsletter

Mistaken Weather Service Forecast Spoils Holiday Celebrations

Barbara Bene 2022.08.22.

The forecast of the National Meteorological Service was wrong, which led the Operational Group to decide to postpone the fireworks on August 20th, Hungarian news site Origo reported. Forecasts predicted rain and high winds during the fireworks with a 80-90 percent chance – but in the end none of these happened.

The National Meteorological Service has since apologized for the inconvenience, but said that this uncertainty factor is part of the business and they tried to communicate this.

The Operational Group dealing with the August 20th celebrations paid exceptional attention to the weather over the weekend, as a chain of thunderstorms hit Hungary during the multi-day celebrations. As a result, outdoor activities were canceled in several locations and the much-anticipated air parade in Budapest was canceled on Saturday morning.

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The Operational Group finally decided on August 20th to postpone the fireworks display for a week, based on preliminary forecasts from the National Meteorological Service, as the weather conditions did not make it safe.

The special attention paid to the weather was also due to the fact that in 2006, the fireworks were held during a huge storm, which ended in a disaster: five people were killed and hundreds injured.

The meteorological service sent out several weather warnings during the day on August 20th, and as late as 3.30 p.m. there was still warning of a possible wave of thunderstorms with downpours and hail, as well as gusty winds.

By late Saturday evening, however, it was clear that the forecast storm had not arrived in the capital.

The canceled fireworks display are scheduled to take place at 9 p.m on the evening of August 27th.

Featured photo: MTI/Lakatos Péter


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