[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

Hi there,

A little while ago, a poster, Snowstorm1/Michael, asked about community radio stations based further south, where he might be able to get practice weather presenting. I've just seen this link for Bishop FM, a community radio station based in South West Durham.

http://www.bishopfm.com/

http://twitter.com/bishopfm

It could be worth getting in touch with them and asking if you could do a stint as an in-house weather forecaster. As I mentioned in a previous post, Lionheart FM in Northumberland have a teenage weather presenter too!

Good luck

P.S. Fingers crossed for Monday

[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

Another nice pic here, from NASA's fantastic Earth Gallery (well worth bookmarking as they have some great satellite pics)

The North East of the UK a respectable mid-blue shade!

Http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=42260

Given the strong negative Arctic Oscillation it would be surprising if there weren't more significant snowfall at least somewhere in the North East and Cumbria this winter. We are unlikely to get another frozen month, of course.

The southwesterlies have never managed to dominate at our latitude for more than a day or two since early December - correct me if I am wrong as I've had some days off! Broadly speaking high pressure to the north and a NW-N-NE flow has always taken over.

I spoke to a meteorologist contact at a television station in Alabama yesterday night and they have just confirmed the first 15 days of the year was the coldest consecutive since records began in the 1840s.

They're forecasting snow or freezing rain this weekend - in the Deep South! They are also talking about the possibility of another ice storm in Kentucky.

The picture from NASA really shows the AO negative situation - the US and northern Asia really getting the brunt of it.

Now do you dare me to talk about this on Look North

[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

hi Hannah,

Over the last cold spell during those heavy snow showers we had a few weeks ago; I am wondering if you got to see any lightning or 'thundersnow' or if you have seen it for yourself, certainly a strange site. I was amazed when I saw some blue flashes (about 5 within two minutes) during a heavy snow storm over Peterlee, added a bit of excitement.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see any myself, would have loved to, but we had loads of emails and texts from viewers and listeners who had seen/heard thunder activity during snow showers, especially in Co Durham and Northumberland.

Have a look at this gorgeous Cb over a snowfield in Berwick earlier this month, which I have posted on Twitter this morning (putting together snowy photo galleries today for our main website)

http://www.twitpic.com/zuc2j

[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

I woulcd like to work for the bbc. I didnt take triple science though and so i can only get 2 science exams would that affect my chances? And how could i become involved in broadcasting live etc? i know for a week im helping out in my primary school in june were you going on about that?

Don't worry, two science GCSEs is a perfectly good basis to go on to do a science A Level or two and potentially a science-based subject at degree. If it's the BBC you are aiming at rather than Met Office a science degree is not a must-have, so don't worry. I was part of an intake of new presenters (one or two for each region) a year or so ago and the backgrounds varied a lot - from people who had lots of broadcasting experience but little science, to a Met Office forecaster who had never done any broadcasting.

Your interest in weather is the main thing and as say, you are already well ahead.

Anything you can get involved with at school to do with radio or presenting would be a good idea. There are also a lot of community radio stations where you can volunteer as a presenter, which is great experience. I'm not sure if this would be anywhere near you but Lionheart FM in Alnwick, Northumberland, have lots of teenage presenters, including a weather presenter. You can find them on Google.

Good luck with your GCSEs!

Best wishes

[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

Hi Hannah! Welcome to NW, not often you have forecasters on here so its a real bonus for our region in particular for having you on board.

I have to admit, when i watched that forecast, i was surprised and a tad critical of your prediction of -20 being forecast for our region seeing as the national forecasters only predicted it for the Scottish highlands. None the less a good call by yourself if indeed -19 was reached albeit as you said, not by official weather stations.

On a side note, does your weather preference in winter is one of cold/snowy weather or the more typical British winter of mild, wet and times windy?

Hi there, thank you for the welcome.

Now, I should probably make some sort of disclaimer here ** speaking strictly in terms of meteorological interest and not human impact** I would go for snow every time! I have to admit to a preference for extreme weather. Highlights so far: the freeze, the floods, and those crazy thunderstorms during our barbecue summer. Quite a buzz to count more than 100 spherics on the radar in an afternoon

[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

Hello i enjoy your forcasts Some forcasts are obviously poor but generally overall i think you do very well. A little bit of more snow ramping woudnt go a miss lol Im just 14 and thinking about taking weather as a job choice when i leave school but dont have a clue how to get into such a wonderful job. My knowledge in weather isnt great but much better i have to say than teenagers my age lol . Is there anything you could suggest?

Hi there, brilliant to hear that you are into weather as a job choice. Having a career in mind already puts you head and shoulders above most other people your age and so does reading this forum. Do you know if you would like to work for the Met Office or the BBC? The Met Office has recently made a science degree a requirement for its forecaster course, so that would mean doing at least a couple of science subjects at A Level. The sort of subjects you might go for at degree include Environmental Science, Geography or Physics. A lot of the BBC national presenters are Met Office forecasters, but not all of them by any means. Carol Kirkwood and Louise Lear don't have meteorology backgrounds and both are obviously great broadcasters and Carol has won lots of awards.

Some of the BBC regional presenters trained as Met Office forecasters, like my colleague Paul Mooney, but most didn't. Having science qualifications will definitely help you though. I took undergraduate courses in Planetary Science and Meteorology. Then when you join the BBC you get more training too, on Met Office courses designed for BBC staff.

So, as well as choosing some science options at school, I would also try to help out at your local hospital radio or community radio, or an internet-based station, so you can get your first taste of broadcasting live. Anything like that will look great on your CV too.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

Hannah

[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

Thank you also for the welcome to the group. Meant to say that before I started talking weather!

Ian F is a lovely bloke, passionate about weather and television. I have been on a couple of courses with him. He gave me a good bit of advice on one of my pieces of coursework for a longer meteorology course I took last year too.

[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

Welcome to Netweather Hannah! Hope you will be on here more and maybe give us some inside info when we have more interesting weather again.

Ian Ferguson from BBC south west is already on here, I was just thinking a couple of weeks back it would be great to have one of our presenters on here, and here you are!

On Sunday January 10 most of us woke up to dripping icicles and thawing paths. Just a degree or two difference from the Saturday, but the slow thaw had begun. The Met Office advisory though was for heavy snow arriving from the south later that day and giving further accumulations of up to 20mm/8 inches, more locally, for the Pennines, with the risk of accumulations elsewhere. Strengthening winds were expected to cause drifting.

The day before I'd had a briefing from the duty forecaster at the Weather Centre in London while I was preparing my Saturday evening broadcast and his message was that the Pennines could be particularly badly affected, especially from drifting.

Overnight, there had been similar advisories for Essex, Hertfordshire and other southern counties... but they hadn't got anywhere near the totals expected. That morning when I dialled into our conference with the Weather Centre, a colleague from down south wanted to know what explanation she should give viewers.

The Chief Forecaster, we were told, was also puzzled. The same system had brought very heavy snow for France and across the continent just hours before. Does everyone remember the set up? It was a warm front snaking right the way from France eastwards to the Baltics, so blown to us on a southeasterly.

When I saw it my first thought was that it looked very similar to the set up in the first week of December 2008, not long after I started, when the Met Office flashed for heavy snow across the North East and Cumbria, brought in on a southeasterly, after heavy snow in northern France and the Channel Islands. Again, the air when it arrived was just a degree or so warmer and it fell as sleet. We'd had heavy snow showers from a north-easterly earlier that week, just like the set up that brought us most of the snow this year.

Through that morning the flash warning was still in place. At lunchtime I rang the duty forecaster in London to ask if he thought we could downgrade the warning. The system was just not producing the snowfall totals further south. He had just spoken to the Chief in Exeter and the warning was removed. The thaw had begun. And although the winds were picking up, clearly, thawing snow doesn't drift.

P.S. Earlier in this thread doubt was thrown on the -20C forecast - we got it, east and west of the Pennines, albeit from enthusiasts with weather stations and not from Met Office. Official, as you know, -19C. Also - doubt on heavy snow shower forecast from the Thursday before Christmas... erm, well we all know how that one turned out :unsure:

[North East England Cold Spell Discussion]

Ref previous posts: The Beeb has a contractual obligation to pass on Met Office warnings. Woe betide the presenter who were to write their own or alter the accumulation totals.

It's been fun so far, hasn't it?

Best wishes to all, Hannah B