Peter John Gibbs (born 1958) is a former
BBC Weather forecaster, who appeared regularly on
BBC News,
BBC World News and BBC Radio, particularly
BBC Radio Four. He previously worked on the ''
BBC News at One'', ''
BBC News at Six'', ''
BBC News at Ten'' and ''
BBC Breakfast
''BBC Breakfast'' is the BBC television Breakfast television, breakfast news programme. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News (TV channel), BBC News channel. The simulcast is presented live, originally from ...
''. He left the BBC on 9 December 2016.
Early life
Gibbs was born in
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
, and brought up in
Kendal
Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...
, attending
Kendal Grammar School. He graduated from the
University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1979 with an Honours degree in
Physics and
Geography. He started work at the
British Antarctic Survey
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic on ...
in Cambridge. He worked at the British
Halley Research Station on the
Brunt Ice Shelf for two years from October 1979 where he made routine observations of the weather and helped to maintain the base.
When he returned to the
UK in May 1982 he 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 ...
where he spent a year as a
weather forecaster in training. He spent several years forecasting at
RAF Honington in
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
and on the
Benbecula island in the
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...
, where he forecast for the Army missile range on
South Uist before moving to the Norwich Weather Centre in 1989.
BBC career
His
television debut as a forecaster was with BBC Norwich's ''
Look East'' in 1993, and he moved to the BBC Weather Centre to join the BBC World team in October 1997. He began forecasting for other BBC channels in November 1998 and he now
broadcasts across all BBC channels. He often hosts
Gardeners' Question Time on Radio 4. He presented his final weather bulletin on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 9 December 2016.
Honours
He was made an honorary
Doctor of Laws by the
University of Leeds in July 2018.
References
External links
Peter Gibbs Biography - BBC OnlineAudio interview with Peter Gibbs on the About the BBC Blog
*BBC Weather forecast from 8 January 2003 by Peter Gibbs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xyg64d-tIY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbs, Peter
BBC weather forecasters
BBC World News
Living people
People from Kendal
Alumni of Newcastle University
1958 births
Mass media people from Sunderland