Editing Michael Fish (section)

==Hurricane controversy==
A few hours before the [[Great Storm of 1987]] broke, on 15 October 1987, Fish said during a televised weather forecast: "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a [[hurricane]] on the way. Well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't!". 

Fish was wrong. The [[storm]] was the worst to hit [[South East England]] for three centuries, causing record damage and killing 19 people.<ref name="BBCFish">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-41616367/michael-fish-revisits-1987-s-great-storm | title=Michael Fish revisits 1987's Great Storm|date=16 October 2017|work=BBC|access-date=16 October 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref>

In later years, Fish claimed that he had been referring to that year's Atlantic [[Hurricane Floyd (1987)|Hurricane Floyd]] affecting the [[Florida Keys]] at the time,<ref name="florida">{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19923565 |title=Michael Fish and the 1987 Storm |publisher=BBC |date=15 October 2012 |access-date=24 August 2013}}</ref> in a link to a news story in the BBC One O'Clock News that preceded the weather bulletin. But he did not mention Florida in the weather, which was made amid widespread worries about a coming storm: that morning, the ''Surrey Mirror'' had warned of "furious gales".<ref>{{cite web|title=Remembering the 1987 hurricane: 28 years ago this week|url=http://www.surreymirror.co.uk/remembering-1987-hurricane-28-years-ago-week/story-27984062-detail/story.html|website=Surrey Mirror|access-date=9 January 2017|date=14 October 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015141234/http://www.surreymirror.co.uk/Remembering-1987-hurricane-28-years-ago-week/story-27984062-detail/story.html|archive-date=15 October 2015}}</ref> He did go on to warn of high winds for the UK, although the storm that actually occurred was far stronger than he had predicted, albeit technically not a hurricane. 15 years later he commented that if he were given a penny for every mention of that episode of The Weather, he would be a millionaire. In 2012, a clip of the bulletin was shown as part of a video montage in the London [[2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19923565 |title=BBC News – Great Storm of 1987: Michael Fish's 'white lie' |publisher=BBC |date=15 October 2012 |access-date=24 August 2013}}</ref>

In reaction to the controversy, the term "the Michael Fish effect" has been coined, whereby British weather forecasters are now inclined to predict "a worst-case scenario in order to avoid being caught out".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090528/tuk-gloomy-met-office-forecast-cost-seas-a7ad41d.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531121004/http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090528/tuk-gloomy-met-office-forecast-cost-seas-a7ad41d.html|title=Gloomy Met Office forecast 'cost seaside town millions'|archive-date=31 May 2009}}</ref> The term "Michael Fish moment" is applied to public forecasts, on any topic, which turn out to be embarrassingly wrong.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Usborne|first1=Simon|title=Brexit wasn't a 'Michael Fish moment': but economics does need to change|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/08/not-a-michael-fish-moment-for-economics-andy-haldane|access-date=9 January 2017|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=8 January 2017}}</ref>

Fish said in a BBC interview that there was actually no woman caller who phoned in to the BBC regarding the storm, although over the years many have claimed to be her. It was in fact a [[Lie|white lie]] he made up himself, as a colleague in the studio told him his mother in Wales was going to Florida and mentioned that she had heard there was a storm coming, so he thought it would be a good opening line to start the weather with.<ref name="florida"/>