Helen Young (born 10 June 1969) is an English weather forecaster and television presenter. Born in

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, Young attended the

Old Palace School The Old Palace of John Whitgift School is a selective independent school for girls in Croydon, London. The Old Palace is protected as a Grade I listed building. It consists of a pre-school for the ages of 3-4, a preparatory department for the a ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, where she is now a governor. She then studied

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

, graduating in 1990. 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 ...

as a graduate trainee in 1990. After qualifying as a weather forecaster, she started broadcasting on

HTV West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

as a stand-in, and then appearing as a regular presenter for

BBC West BBC West is one of BBC's English Regions serving Bristol, the majority of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire; northern and eastern Somerset and northeastern Dorset. Services Television BBC West's television service (broadcast on BBC One) consists o ...

. In November 1993, she joined the

BBC Weather Centre BBC Weather is the department of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) responsible for both the preparation and the broadcasting of weather forecasting, weather forecasts. On 6 February 2018, BBC Weather changed supplier from the governme ...

as the then youngest BBC weather presenter. She was the main presenter for ''The Weather Show'' and also presented the radio series ''Strange Weather Days'', and the weather series for the children's programme ''

Zig-Zag A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular. In geometry, this pattern is described as a ...

''. She was the lead presenter at the BBC Weather Centre from 2002 until 11 November 2005, when she left to become a full-time mother to her young family. Young is married to a

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

pilot, and resident in Sutton in Surrey. Since her retirement from BBC Weather she has co-authored a children's book, ''Discovery Plus: Weather & Sky''. She also acts for the

London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton () is a London borough in south-west London, England and forms part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to ...

as an Ambassador for the School Travel Plan, leading assemblies and lessons on environmental issues such as weather/climate change, to all age groups from Nursery School children up to learned adults.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Helen People from Crawley 1969 births Living people Alumni of the University of Bristol BBC weather forecasters People educated at the Old Palace School