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Barbara Edwards (born 1939)
is an English meteorologist who became the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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's first female television
weather presenter
A weather presenter (also known colloquially in North America as a weatherman or weather broadcaster) is a person who presents the weather forecast daily on radio, television or internet news broadcasts. Using diverse tools, such as projected weath ...
in January 1974.
She joined the
Met Office
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...
in 1957 where she edited and published meteorological publications, until 1962. She worked as a
weather forecaster
A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
at
Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...
and
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
from 1963 to 1970, when she moved to the
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
Weather Centre working on forecasting for commerce and industry.
She also presented weather reports on
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
from 1970 to 1974, as well as doing continuity announcements on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
from 1972.
She most famously appeared from January 1974 until June 1978 on
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
, joining around the same time as the far longer-serving
Michael Fish
Michael Fish, (born 27 April 1944 in Eastbourne, Sussex) is a British weather forecaster. From 1974 to 2004, he was a television presenter for BBC Weather.
Career
Educated at Eastbourne College and City University London, Fish was the longe ...
. During this period she is said to have disliked the criticism of her dress sense, which the male members of the team did not have to contend with, but was no doubt accentuated by being the first woman in the role. In this, her career route to television presentation through being a professional meteorologist clearly contrasts with subsequent stereotypes of a 'weather girl'.
Edwards initially enjoyed being recognised in public, but the shine soon wore off. "Some people love publicity and like to be recognised and would hate it if they weren't," she said in a BBC interview. "But until it happens to you I don't think you know, and I found out that I didn't enjoy it and I wanted my privacy and there's no way you can have it if you're on television, privacy just goes out the window. I just couldn't accept that." She also found the job a rather lonely one. "You were just this one Met Office person at Television Centre in a little office all on your own, and the few people you get to know in the studio, you found when you were free they were busy, and you'd go down to the canteen and have your lunch, usually alone."
Due to frustration at the public criticism of her dress sense, which the male forecasters escaped, Edwards retreated to presenting on the radio.
Edwards married Kenneth Watson in 1976. She is the
aunt
An aunt is a woman who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Aunts who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. Known alternate terms include auntie or aunty. Children in other cultures and families may refer ...
of expatriate
Claire Martin, who presented weather forecasts nationally in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
on
CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
.
In 2014, she told the BBC that since leaving the Met Office, she had been working part-time in a university library.
References
External links
Biography of Barbara Edwards
British meteorologists
BBC weather forecasters
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
1939 births
{{UK-tv-bio-stub