BBC - Devon Weather - televised weather forecasts reach 50th anniversary

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January 2004
Fifty years of BBC TV weather broadcasts

George Cowling, the first TV forecaster

It's 50 years since the first weather forecaster appeared on BBC television.

To mark the anniversary our own forecaster David Braine looks back at the history of weather broadcasting.

SEE ALSO

Craig Rich retires after 25 years of weather forecasting

David Braine - profile

WEB LINKS

BBC forecasters over the years

George Cowling

Producing the BBC weather forecasts

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FACTS

The first televised weather broadcast featuring a presenter on screen was transmitted from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios on 11th of January 1954.

The tradition of live forecasts is maintained today, but the length of each broadcast has fallen to between 45 seconds and 4 minutes.

Far more forecasts are produced each day and the total broadcast time during a week has grown to more than 22 hours.

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The year 2004 marks the 50th Anniversary of the first ever appearance of a weather forecaster on BBC Television.

George Cowling, a 32-year-old Yorkshireman, made the first five minute live broadcast on Sunday the 11th of January 1954.

He was the first of a string of forecasters to appear on screen - a tradition that continues today.

The basic principles of televised weather forecasts remain much the same, although the forecasting technology has changed dramatically.

In 2003 the Met Office moved to a new high-tech HQ in Exeter.

In 1854 the British Meteorological Office was founded as a very small department in the Board of Trade.

By 1861 it was issuing gale warnings to shipping with the information being telegraphed by using flags and cones hoisted up masts.

Forecasts to the press began in 1879 and then in 1922 the BBC was founded and the forecasts moved to the new and exciting medium of the wireless.

On 14th November 1922 the BBC broadcast the first radio weather forecast to the public when an announcer read a script issued by the Met Office.

But it wasn't until 26th March 1923 that the first regular weather broadcasts on the BBC started.

Craig Rich was the BBC's first regional TV forecaster.

At the end of 1936 the world's first television weather chart was transmitted at the start of a trial series and this continued until the outbreak of World War II.

BBC Television closed down during the war, but in July 1949 weather maps with captions began to be broadcast again.

By the early 1950's the BBC's then Director General, Sir Ian Jacob, made a decision that weather presentations could be much improved if, instead of just weather maps and charts, the forecaster himself appeared on screen.

So in 1954 the first ever BBC Meteorologist appeared on screen and started a tradition that continues today, a credit to George Cowling.

The Radio Times magazine highlighted the new service: "From Monday onwards the television weather report and forecast will be presented by a Meteorological Office forecaster who will explain and comment on the charts shown."

BBC South West's Craig Rich became the BBC's first regional forecaster in 1978 when he joined Spotlight South West.

Craig became a television institution during his 25 year stint on the programme - finally retiring from the screen in December 2003.

I arrived in 1995 and become the 40th forecaster to appear on BBC television.

But the founder of television weather may well find that the landscape of TV forecasting has changed beyond recognition as new technology has taken over.

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