Born in Mumbai, India, Shefali Oza arrived in broadcasting by an unconventional route.
…Aldred, Ann
Ann acquired her first television experience at Rhodesian Television.
…Lukha, Manali
Manali, also known as Mona, developed a passion for meteorology whilst studying geology and geography at Keele University.
…Lacey, Tori
Born in Amersham in 1973, Tori Lacey studied for a BSc in biomedical sciences at the University of Bradford before spending a year in Australia working as a nutritional consultant at a health retreat.
…Hudson, Paul
Born in Keighley, Paul Hudson developed a fascination with meteorology during childhood.
…Schafernaker, Tomasz
Tomasz was born in Gdansk, Poland. He attended school both in the UK and his home country, where he developed a keen interest in the weather and natural sciences at a young age.
…Blanchett, Christopher
Christopher was born on the Isle of Wight. He graduated with a BA Hons degree in human geography in 2004 and a Masters in television journalism in 2005 (he was tutored by former BBC TV News correspondent Barnie Choudhury).
…Turnbull, Hilary
Hilary was born in Sunderland. Her school friend’s father, Bill Lyon-Shaw, was programme controller at Tyne Tees Television and whilst returning to work at the Flora Robson Playhouse in Newcastle, he invited her to appear as a weather presenter.
…Burak, Lukwesa
Lukwesa was born in Ndola, Zambia in 1974 (date unknown). She is named after her royal tribal family.
…Rizzini, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Austen was born on 19th November (year unknown), in Bexley. She lived and studied in both France and Spain and is fluent in both languages.
…Dutton, Liam
Liam was born in Cardiff. He graduated in 2002 with a BSc (Hons) Geography degree from the University of Wales in Swansea.
…Lear, Louise
Born Louise Barden in Sheffield. In 1988, she graduated with a BA Hons in Music and Drama from the University of Middlesex. Her first job was as a researcher for Children’s BBC. She then joined an independent radio production company as a sports presenter, introducing events such as Wimbledon and the 1992 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.
…Fish, Michael
Michael was born in Eastbourne. He was employed by the Met Office for over forty years (1962 – 2004). His first posting was Gatwick Airport and in 1965 he transferred to the Bracknell HQ to work on research projects.
…Best, Keith
Keith joined the Met Office in 1947, initially working at RAF stations around Britain.
…Walker, Peter
Peter worked as a meteorological observer in charge at Whitworth Observatory, Manchester. He was a research assistant at Keele University and a Royal Navy met officer before joining the Met Office in 1963. He was a forecaster based at Uxbridge.
…Kettley, John
John was born in Halifax. He was employed by the Met Office from 1970 until 2000. He had a spell working at the Nottingham Weather Centre (1980 – 1985), where he made appearances on BBC Birmingham’s Midlands Today (1980 – 1983) and on Central TV (1984 – 1985).
…Lang, Isobel
Isobel was born in Lincoln. She graduated in 1991 from Exeter University with a BSc (Hons) degree in mathematics. She joined the Met Office in September 1991 and was initially based at the London Weather Centre, where she prepared forecasts for the press; she also presented the weather on local radio. Isobel appeared briefly as a holiday relief forecaster for Meridian TV before joining the BBC Weather Centre in May 1995. She was a regular BBC network television forecaster (December 1995 – August 2006). She had a baby boy (Benjamin Bryon) in October 2002 and after a second child was born, returned from maternity leave in summer 2004.
…Ellis, Norman
Norman worked at the Met Office (1947 – 1984). He was a BBC TV forecaster (March 1959 – March 1964); during the same period he was also heard on BBC Radio.
…Whitfield, Ashleigh
Ashleigh was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980. She graduated from the University of Sunderland. In 2001, she won a radio competition to be the traffic and travel reporter at Century FM.
…Parker, Graham
Graham was born in the East End of London. He was stationed at RAF Coltishall during his National Service.
…Hill, Alex
Alex joined the Met Office in 1974 as an observer at Glasgow Airport and after training as a forecaster, he worked as an operational aviation forecaster at various defence sites and airports.
…Bacon, Jim
Jim was born in Suffolk. He was employed by the Met Office from 1968 until 1986. His career started in East Anglia at RAF stations in 1968. He later moved to Bracknell for a few years as a programmer on the Met Office supercomputer.
…Hammond, John
John was born in Bosham, West Sussex, the son of a farmer. After taking an interest in the weather from the age of four, he studied geography at the University of Salford, followed by meteorology at the University of Birmingham.
…Giles, Bill
Bill was born in Dittisham, near Dartmouth in Devon. He joined the Meteorological Office at Exeter in January 1957 on leaving the Bristol College of Science and Technology. Later that year, as an 18-year-old, he was sent to Christmas Island to observe the meteorological effects of the H bomb tests and later recalled seeing the “horrendous clouds”. Bill was based in Germany as an observer with the RAF (1961 – 1963) and worked as a lecturer at the Met Office’s training college (1968 – 1970).
…Kirkwood, Carol
Carol was born in Morar. After attending Napier University in Edinburgh, where she gained a BA in Commerce, she initially joined the BBC’s secretarial reserve in London, in 1984.
…West, Laurie
Laurence John Thomas West, the son of a sailor, was brought up in Portsmouth. His ambition was to join the Navy, but when he applied as a boy he was told he was “a few days too old”. Instead, in 1924, he joined the RAF as an aircraft apprentice and was posted to RAF Cranwell as a coppersmith, an occupation which earned him the nickname ‘Knocker West’. In 1933, he applied for pilot training and was soon flying a wide variety of aircraft.
…Baker, Trevor
Trevor was always affectionately known as Trevor ‘The Weather’ Baker.
…Scott, Jack
Jack was a popular BBC TV forecaster (17th May 1969 – 4th May 1983) and for many years was the senior forecaster. He also presented forecasts on BBC Radio. He was a Met Office employee (1941 – 1983), working on RAF stations (1941 – 1968).
…Edwards, Barbara
Barbara was born in 1939. She joined the Met Office in 1957 and until 1962 worked in the library and editing department at Harrow, sub-editing and proofreading meteorological publications; in 1962, she moved to Bracknell HQ to undertake similar work. From 1963 until 1970, she worked as a forecaster at Gatwick and Heathrow Airport. Barbara was based at the London Weather Centre forecasting for commerce and industry (1970 – 1979) and has the distinction of being the first female national BBC TV forecaster, appearing from January 1974 until June 1978; she was also heard on BBC Radio during the same period. She was the BBC One Christmas Day weather presenter once, in 1975.
…McCaskill, Ian
Ian was born John Robertson McCaskill in Glasgow. His national service took him into the RAF and in 1959, he joined the Meteorological Corps. He left in 1961 to join the Met Office and later postings included Prestwick Airport, Malta and the Manchester Weather Centre.
…Fox, Everton
Everton was born in Cambridge in 1964. He worked in the Department of Social Security as a civil servant before joining the Met Office in 1991. He spent a year at the Norwich Weather Centre. Having completed the forecaster foundation programme in March 2000, which included on-the-job training at RAF Marham in Norfolk, he went on to become a forecaster at the London Weather Centre where he worked for three months.
…Young, Helen
Helen was born in Crawley but raised in East Grinstead and Old Coulsdon/Purley, Surrey. She graduated with a BSc (hons) in geography from Bristol University in 1990 and joined the Met Office in September 1990, working in the commercial services division as a consultant, providing climatology reports for the building and transport industries. She wrote climatological reports for county councils and often had to go out to rural locations and report on whether proposed road routes would be fog prone or frost prone. Helen commented: “It was a great job, but you were certainly less popular than being a TV weather forecaster!” She trained as a forecaster in November 1992 and moved to Bristol Weather Centre in February 1993. She appeared as a forecaster on local TV for HTV for one week as emergency cover. Later, she would move to BBC Bristol, appearing on Points West.
…Foord, Bert
Bert was employed by the Met Office from 1947 until 1990. He was a BBC Radio/TV weatherman from 1963 until December 1973.
…Cowling, George
George joined the Met Office in 1939 as a met assistant with No 4 Bomber Group at FAF Yorkshire. From 1942 until 1953, he worked as an RAF forecaster in the UK, Normandy, Belgium, Holland and Germany.
…Dowling, Aoife
Aoife joined RTÉ in the late-1990s, working as a continuity announcer on both television channels, though mainly on RTÉ Network 2. She later went on to present RTÉ weather forecasts – on both channels – from 2002. She left RTÉ in summer 2003.
Armour, Downie
Downie was a BBC TV national weather forecaster (1956 – 1958). He died in 1979.
Stuart, Vivien
Vivien was born in 1957. Following university, she accepted a place on the Broadcast Journalist Training Scheme in 1975, which led to several years working as a studio manager.
…Gosney, Kerrie
Kerrie grew up in the Peak District. She graduated in cultural studies, media, film and communication from Sheffield Hallam University in 1998.
…Armstrong, Jack
Jack was a BBC TV national weather forecaster (1956 – 1965). He worked at the Met Office for 36 years (1947 – 1983). He died in 1984.
Avery, Philip
Philip – born in 1959 – served with the Royal Navy as a forecaster (1984 – 1994). His broadcasting career began in 1996 with The Weather Network, based in Birmingham. Within months he moved to London to appear on The Weather Channel. He joined the BBC Weather Centre in April 1998 and became a BBC TV national weather forecaster in March 1999. He appeared on BBC TV’s Breakfast News and international TV channels, BBC Prime and BBC World.
Matthews, Lisa
Lisa was a presenter with Swansea Sound, where she worked on the late show. She then joined BBC Wales TV presentation, where she worked as a continuity director/announcer (1997 – TBC). From late-1999, she combined this with presentation for BBC Radio Wales. She fronted After Midnight – a pop video-based show on BBC Choice Wales. She also appeared in-vision on BBC 2W, presenting weather forecasts.
Bracken, Ursula
Ursula joined RTÉ in 2007, working initially as a continuity announcer on RTÉ One. She later took on weather presenting duties.
Ursula worked as a secondary teacher for nine years before leaving the classroom to pursue a career in TV. She graduated from UCG Galway with a BA in French and English, an H Dip in Education and a Masters Degree in French. She returned to college ten years later to study Communications in NUI Maynooth.
Buckley, Karina
Karina joined the RTÉ TV announcing team in the late-1990s, working mainly on RTÉ One. She also presents weather forecasts on both RTÉ TV channels.
Evans, Su
Su was a long-serving ATV (Midlands) and Central TV in-vision continuity announcer. She went on to become a regular regional weather presenter on ITV Central and ITV Wales. She also freelanced as an out-of-vision announcer for Central after it became part of the Carlton group (late-1990s – 2001. Su also did relief announcing on Southern Television in the 1970s.
Curran, Helen
(Formerly Helen Leonard; married in July 2005). Helen has a BA in Irish and Information Technology from UCD. During her university studies she also worked behind-the-scenes on various RTÉ shows including Don’t Feed the Gondolas, The Den and Podge and Rodge.
In 1997, she moved into a continuity announcer role on RTÉ Network 2, presenting many of her links in-vision. Her continuity links are now largely confined to RTÉ One.
In June 2003, Helen joined the station’s team of weather presenters.
Stevens, Lorna
Lorna was an HTV West and Thames TV continuity announcer who moved to the HTV weather department when in-vision announcing was axed in 1993. She was regularly seen as a weather presenter on both HTV West and HTV Wales, but recently left when weather presentation was centralised in Birmingham. Lorna is also believed to have announced for HTV Wales.
A former professional model who worked with The Bluebell Girls first in Barcelona, Spain, and then in Paris, she started her broadcasting career on her return to the UK with local ILR station Radio 210 in the Thames Valley. She went on to work as an announcer for BBC Radio 4 and was a network announcer on BBC TV (1984 – 1986), before embarking on a career as a freelance announcer/presenter for several ITV companies and also on BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting). Lorna also worked as an announcer on Westcountry Television in Plymouth for around 18 months from 1993 with colleague Peter Griffin.
Carey, Nuala
Nuala joined RTÉ in 1999 as a full-time RTÉ weather presenter. She also regularly presents the National Lottery’s Telly Bingo and Lotto draws. Nuala also acts as a relief continuity announcer on RTÉ One and RTÉ 2.
Cockroft, Peter
Former BBC TV/radio weather presenter.
…Jago, Becky
Becky was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and graduated from the University of Bedfordshire with a BA in Media Performance in 1997.
…Greene, Frank
Former BBC TV/radio weather presenter.
…Maunder, Don
Former TV/radio weather presenter.
…Angwin, Richard
Richard’s began his weather forecasting career in 1990. In 1995, he auditioned for a weather presenting job at BBC West. He got the job and is still the main weather presenter there. He can also be heard presenting the weather on various BBC local radio stations.