Hungary sacks 2 weather experts after wrong forecast forces fireworks cancellation

Budapest: Hungary's top two weather experts have been fired over wrong forecast that sparked political uproar.

The sacking came in the face of a major embarrassment of the government when it postponed what is billed as "Europe's biggest fireworks display" on Saturday evening to celebrate St Stephen's Day over the MeT's blunder.

Seven hours before the scheduled start, the government postponed the event, citing extreme weather warnings.

However, the weather stayed calm - leading to the sackings of the head and deputy head of the weather service, the BBC reported.

Some 40,000 fireworks were ready to be launched from 240 points along a 5km (3 mile) stretch of the Danube River in central Budapest, in a display usually watched by up to two million people on the national holiday.

The government postponed the event for a week due to the extreme weather warnings it received.

But the rain storm the National Meteorological Service had predicted changed direction and struck parts of eastern Hungary instead - missing the capital city entirely.

A public apology on the MeT's Facebook page on Sunday explained that the "least likely" outcome happened, and that uncertainty is part of weather forecasting. But it was too late.

On Monday, Innovation Minister Laszlo Palkovics sacked the service chiefs, with immediate effect. (UNI)