I hear you on aviation weather reports - it's got to the stage where I only look at them for legal reasons - of what use is a forecast that says "visibility will be 100 m in hill fog"? or "800 m in showers"? I want to know where the fog is!
I used to have a network of friends round the UK that I would ring up - much more efficient!
If I was running a company there again, I would have some of those creative britecams dotted around the country that you can access from the internet. I know there are some surf ones available in the West Country which are quite useful
Phil