Here you go, coldest winter since 1659. Maybe, just maybe if the companies you guys fly for had access to accurate forecasting they might have outlayed on machines and or equipment that could cope better with the ice, so might the Oil /Gas companies have planned a lot of their work around it as well.
Not to mention the ice cream machine.
In this country nearly every crop / cereal grower farmer uses long range predictions, I guess the insurance companies that cover those crops do to, as well as govt the duffers who predict potential GDP income from them. Same over there methinks. this year pretty much all of eastern OZ crops are pretty much cactus. and the wet hasn't started yet.
Read all about it. your London Mayor, seems a smart man, and fast on his feet too.
The Met Office ‘secret’ prediction and the political implications | Watts Up With That?