The unique and distinctive presentation style of these broadcasts has led to their attracting an audience much wider than that directly interested in maritime weather conditions.

[2] In October 1859, the steam clipper Royal Charter was wrecked in a strong storm off Anglesey; 450 people lost their lives.

In 1911, the Met Office began issuing marine weather forecasts which included gale and storm warnings via radio transmission for areas around Great Britain.

[7] Between 30 March 2020 and 5 July 2020, as a result of emergency rescheduling because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of bulletins a day was reduced to three, at 00:48, 05:33, and either 12:03 (weekdays) or 17:54 (weekends).

[8][9] From 1 April 2024, there is no longer a separate long wave schedule for Radio 4, so the number of broadcasts per day has been reduced to two on weekdays and three at weekends, at the following (UK local) times.

The Dutch KNMI and Norwegian counterpart names Forties the Fladen Ground, while Météo-France uses Pas-de-Calais for Dover, Antifer for Wight, Casquets for Portland and Ouessant for Plymouth.

This format is followed quite strictly, although some continuity announcers read out the actual date of issue as opposed to the word "today".

The 00:48 Shipping Forecast, at the end of the broadcast day, is traditionally preceded by the playing of "Sailing By", a light orchestral piece by Ronald Binge.

The forecast is then followed by a more general weather report, the sign-off, traditionally ending with the presenter wishing the audience a good night, the national anthem "God Save the King" and the closedown of the station for the day, with the BBC World Service taking over the frequencies after the pips of the Greenwich Time Signal at 01:00.

The Shipping Forecast should not be confused with similar broadcasts given by HM Coastguard to vessels at sea tuned into marine VHF and MF radio frequencies.

The Shipping Forecast is immensely popular with the British public; it attracts listeners in the hundreds of thousands daily – far more than actually require it.

[19] In 1995, a plan to move the late night broadcast by 12 minutes triggered angry newspaper editorials and debates in the UK Parliament and was ultimately scrapped.

[21] Peter Jefferson, who read the Forecast for 40 years until 2009, says that he received letters from listeners across the UK saying that the 0048 broadcast helped them get to sleep after a long day.

Whilst the listener is safely tucked-up in their bed, they can imagine small fishing-boats bobbing about at Plymouth or 170ft waves crashing against Rockall.

It is a nightly litany with a rhythm and indefinable poetry that have made it popular with millions of people who never have cause to put to sea and have little idea what it actually means; a reminder that whilst you're tucked-up safely under the bedclothes, far out over the waves it's a wilder and more dangerous picture, one that captures the imagination and leads it into uncharted waters whilst you sleep.

"[24] The Twentieth Century Society Director Catherine Croft commented: Initially a utilitarian service for a specific minority, it's been adopted as a much loved emotional comfort blanket by a broader demographic – who never go to sea.

It's a poetic reverie and symbol of national caring, whilst at the same time a reminder of our geographical isolation and the uncontrollable power of natural phenomena.

Faeroes, Bailey, Fair Isle, Hebrides Malin, Rockall, Shannon, Sole Trafalgar, Finisterre, Irish Sea, Biscay Humber, Portland, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne ... Dogger, Fisher, German Bight; Viking, Thames, Dover, Wight (3x) Dogger, Fisher, German Bight ... Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea I've got a message I can't read But after we danced to the shipping forecast the words escaped your mouth...

Malin, Hebrides, Shetland, Jersey, Fair Isle, Turtle-Neck, Tank Top, Courtelle: Blowy, quite misty, sea sickness.

The BBC Radio 4 monologue sketch show One features a number of Shipping Forecast parodies, written by David Quantick and Daniel Maier, such as the following, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 21 February 2008: And now with the time approaching 5 pm, It's time for the mid-life crisis forecast...

In an episode of the BBC Radio 4 series Live on Arrival, Steve Punt reads the Shopping Forecast, in which the regions are replaced with supermarket names, e.g. "Tesco, Fine Fare, Sainsbury".

On the broadcast at 0048 on Saturday 19 March 2011, the area forecasts were delivered by John Prescott to raise awareness of Red Nose Day 2011, a charity event organised by Comic Relief.

The comedian Marti Caine listed the Shipping Forecast as one of her eight records when she made her second appearance on Desert Island Discs on 24 March 1991.

[33] Terence Davies' film Distant Voices, Still Lives, a largely autobiographical account of growing up in Liverpool during the 1940s and 1950s, opens with a shipping forecast from this period.

In an episode of the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, a soon-to-be-sailing Hyacinth Bucket calls over the telephone for an advance shipping forecast, even though the yacht she and her husband Richard are to visit is moored on the Thames near Oxford.

In an episode of the BBC sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles, Howard and Hilda leave their neighbour Paul's house party early, explaining that they must get back to listen to the Shipping Forecast.

In an episode of the Channel 4 television series Black Books, the character Fran Katzenjammer listens to the shipping forecast because a friend from her college is reading it.

In the 2011 movie Page Eight, the Shipping Forecast plays as the main protagonist Jonnie Worricker drives his car through London late at night.

A number of minor characters in Jasper Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, are named after Sea Areas in the shipping forecast.

"[38] In Amelia Ellis' 2008 novel The Fourth Aspect, the protagonist is overcome by an emotional reaction when by chance listening to the shipping forecast on a road trip from London to the Scottish Highlands, leading her to the realization that "Sometimes we hold on to things or people for reasons that have nothing to do with them at all.