James Dale Bacon (born 22 June 1950) is a British television

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 ...

, who appeared on national forecasts (BBC1) in the 1980s, with his distinct East Anglian accent. After leaving the BBC he took over as a Design and Technology technician in South-east London.

Early life

He was born in Suffolk. He went to primary school in

Feltwell Feltwell is a village which holds an RAF base 10 miles (16 km) west of Thetford, Norfolk, England, and is in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. Landmarks and facilities Feltwell has the largest area of any parish in Norfolk. It is ...

in King's Lynn and West Norfolk, near the Suffolk boundary in the south-west of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, then attended

Thetford Grammar School Thetford Grammar School is an independent co-educational school in Thetford, Norfolk, England. The school might date back to the 7th century, which would make it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. History The school website conject ...

Career

He became a meteorologist in 1968.Weatherquest
/ref> He started out on RAF stations in East Anglia. He then worked for the Met Office, where he programmed supercomputers. He worked as a forecaster at

London Stansted Airport London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations ac ...

, then did a degree in Meteorology at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

, a university renowned for its meteorology department. He then worked at the London Weather Centre, becoming a senior forecaster.

Television

Whilst at London, he worked for national television and radio as a forecaster, in the days of magnetic symbols. In 1986 he left national television to join the

Anglia TV ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated ...

weather forecasting team, where he worked until 1997. In the 2000s and 2010s he appeared on

BBC Look East ''BBC Look East'' is the name of two separate BBC regional television news programmes for the East of England made by BBC East. History The first BBC television news bulletins for the East of England began on 5 October 1959. These bulletins ...

as one of their forecasting team. He retired in 2019.

References

External links

Explaining how he forecasts the weather
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Jim 1950 births Alumni of the University of Reading BBC weather forecasters People associated with the University of East Anglia People educated at Thetford Grammar School Living people People from Feltwell