Gerald Fleming (born 20 November 1957) is an Irish former

meteorologist 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 ...

and weather presenter. He joined

Met Éireann Met Éireann (; meaning " Met of Ireland") is the state meteorological service of Ireland, part of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. History The history of modern meteorology in Ireland dates back to 8 October 1860, wh ...

in 1980 and worked as co-ordinator of the

RTÉ Television RTÉ Television is a department of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the Republic of Ireland's state controlled national broadcaster. Its first channel was Teilifís Éireann, which began broadcasting on 31 December 1961. Since the 1960s, RT ...

weather team. He served as Head of Forecasting in Met Éireann until his retirement in December 2017. He is now involved with the World Bank and travels all over the world helping other countries improve their weather stations.

Early and personal life

He was born in

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

, where he still lives today. He attended a local Christian Brothers school. He is married to Mary Duggan, an architect, and has three children and one grandson. He has been involved with the Wexford Swimming Club, Leinster Swimming, and the Wexford Arts Centre.

Career

Fleming attended

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

where he studied for four years. He earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

Experimental Physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and ...

. In 1980 he achieved a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

following two years of research in the Atmospherics Group of the UCD Physics Department. When he left university, he moved straight to Irish Met Service. After sixteen months training, he was deployed to

Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish language, Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (Irish company), DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinsto ...

as an aviation forecaster. He moved to the

Glasnevin Glasnevin (, also known as ''Glas Naedhe'', meaning "stream of O'Naeidhe" after a local stream and an ancient chieftain) is a neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland, situated on the River Tolka. While primarily residential, Glasnevin is also home t ...

base two years later. He gave his first weather forecast in July 1985. In 1990, he was made co-ordinator of weather at

. While on television he was noted for his tendency to

wink A wink is a facial expression made by briefly closing one eye. A wink is an informal mode of non-verbal communication usually signaling shared hidden knowledge or intent. However, it is ambiguous by itself and highly dependent upon additional ...

. He has served as Chairperson of the International Association of Broadcast Meteorology and co-chair of the First World Conference on Broadcast Meteorology. He has also chaired the Expert Team on Media Issues for the World Meteorological Organisation and since 2005 has been Chair of the Public Weather Service Delivery Programme Group for WMO, and a member of the Management Group on the WMO Commission for Basic Systems. Fleming was Head of the General Forecasting Division in Met Éireann until December 2017, when he retired. In that position he was a primary representative of Met Éireann to the media. He was also a regular contributor to Mooney on RTÉ Radio 1. Now he is involved with World Bank and travels around the world helping countries improve their weather stations, improving safety for the people in those countries. He does this by working alongside them to determine improvements they can make. Some of this work he can do from home. However, he can also be away for months at a time. He is the treasurer of th
International Association of Broadcast Meteorology (IABM).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Gerald Living people
People from Wexford, County Wexford Irish television weather presenters 1957 births