Reuters: Officials left blushing over Japan blossom glitch
Japanese weather officials have been left red-faced after a computer glitch led to incorrect forecasts for the start of the cherry blossom season. The blooming of the delicate, pale pink flowers is something of a national obsession, and last week's official forecast was front-page news. But on Wednesday, an embarrassed Meteorological Agency was forced to admit that its predictions were wrong, in one case forecasting blossoms more than a week early. "The program we used for the data had a bug, so some of the data it read was wrong," said an agency official. "We're really very sorry." Another official was shown on NHK national television bowing as he said, "I apologise deeply for issuing wrong information." Among the incorrect dates was that for Tokyo, where the blossoms are set to open around March 21 instead of the original prediction of March 18... For the Meteorological Agency, which has faced challenges in recent years from private forecasters, the worst is yet to come. "We haven't had many complaints from the public, since the announcement still hasn't been widely publicised," the agency official said. "But I think that from tomorrow, we're probably going to be overwhelmed by angry phone calls."
