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Les prévisions n'ont pas été bonnes.

Les prévisions n'ont pas été bonnes.
The forecasts were not good.
From Lesson 181:Reported speech: future to conditional·French

Questions & Answers about Les prévisions n'ont pas été bonnes.

Why do we use the passé composé (ont été) here instead of the imparfait (étaient)?
Using the passé composé (ont été) treats the bad forecasts as a single, completed event with a final result—for example, looking back at a specific weekend that is now over. The imparfait (étaient) would be used to describe an ongoing background state at the time (like saying "The forecasts were bad, so we decided to stay home").
Where does the negation (ne ... pas) go when using the passé composé?
In the passé composé, ne ... pas surrounds the helper verb, which in this case is avoir (ont). It does not go around the past participle (été). Because ont starts with a vowel, ne shortens to n', giving us n'ont pas été.
Why is bonnes spelled with a double "n" and an "es"?
It describes les prévisions (the forecasts), which is a feminine plural noun. To make the masculine adjective bon feminine, you double the n and add an e to get bonne. Then, you add an s to match the plural noun.

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