Biographies

Presenter, BBC South West

Helen McKenzie is one of BBC South West's television and radio presenters and part of the multimedia weather team.

Helen has always been fascinated by the weather, particularly enjoying the spectacle of thunderstorms as a child growing up in Exeter. She knew from an early age that she would like to pursue a career that involved weather in some way.

Helen studied at Cardiff University for a BSc in Environmental Geoscience.

She was lucky enough to carry out her dissertation in Madagascar looking at the effects of Tropical Cyclone Dera, at the same time as carrying out another project assessing the health of the coral reef systems, for which she gained a qualification in diving and a BTEC in Tropical Habitat Conservation.

After successfully completing her degree, Helen joined the Met Office as a Weather Forecaster.

This job took Helen to various places across the south of the UK – firstly training in Torquay, then on to RAF St Mawgan near Newquay where she was followed by a TV crew making a documentary on the many different aspects of the Met Office.

Following this, Helen moved back to Cardiff for two years working in the Cardiff Met Office.

It was here that she got her first taste of broadcasting as she gave regular radio broadcasts to various BBC regions.

During her time in Cardiff, Helen found she had a passion for broadcasting, and moved to the BBC Weather Centre at Television Centre in London, where she worked as a Broadcast Assistant.

This role involved more regional radio broadcasting, as well as producing the weather shows for the national broadcast meteorologists.

In 2006 Helen moved to the Met Office headquarters in Exeter, working in the Operations Centre as a commercial forecaster.

Here she became involved in giving presentations to various different audiences including staff, members of the public on open days and school parties finding out about the weather.

Helen says: "I feel so lucky to be able to talk to people in my home region of the South West every day about a topic I love. It doesn't get much better than that! It's a very exciting time for me."