Thanks for dropping in and welcome to my website. I am the face of weather on BBC television's regional news programme, Points West.

The idea behind this website is to promote and expand on issues you may have seen on the weather forecast, for which on-air time just does not allow. Is tomorrow's weather a product of global warming? What's happening in the night sky? What's the weather like in other parts of the world?

There is a saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin that, "Whilst some people are weatherwise, most are otherwise." Hopefully, this site will help you become a little more weatherwise.

18th August

A busy weekend. On Saturday we were in Warwickshire for a wedding.

              Before the rain reached Warwickshire

On Sunday - in fact, EVERY Sunday - I continued my training ahead of the Abingdom Marathon on 19th October. I'm now up to 18 miles on my long runs. I need to get a few runs of 20 to  22 miles before the big event.

As this is the first, and last, marathon I will attempt, I may well try and raise money for charity. Details will appear on this site quite soon for those of you who would like to sponsor me.

2nd August

On Saturday we attended the Harbour Festival with the rest of the team from the BBC. Although it was good to meet so many viewers and listeners they all wanted to know just one thing: "When is Richard Angwin going to be thrown into the Floating Harbour?"

I had agreed to take part in a charity rescue with a group of Newfouldland Dog owners who were helping raise funds for Childrens Hospice Southwest. Word of the 'stunt' obviously got around and I think the BBC missed a trick here and a prize of 'Push the Weatherman in the Water' would have attracted much interest.

                      Hold your nose and in you go (Picture: Michael Satherley)

Whilst I didn't get 'thrown' in, I did have to dive and jump into the murky waters of the Harbour. The Newfoundlands were beside themselves with excitement and if their handlers had let them, they would all have jumped in the water to rescue me.

             C'mon pooch, nearly there!

As it was, my rescue dog pulled me back to the boat at a nice steady pace. that was a relief! I can report that i survived the rescue although the docks water seems to have wrecked its revenge by giving me a sore throat and a stomach upset!

1st August

19th July

We went to Westonbirt Arboretum on Saturday night as guests of the Forrestry Commission for the Katherine Jenkins concert. Westonbirt was packed for this event. I have to say I found the concert a bit of a 'curate's egg'. She has a fantastic voice but it works much better when she sticks to classical works and leaves the rock and pop alone.

But the fireworks were some of the best I have ever seen.

Guess who I bumped into at the concert? Susan Osman! It was the first time I had seen Susan to talk to since she left the BBC, so we had a bit of catching up to do. I have to say she was looking years younger than when I last saw her and she seems to be enjoying life and her various projects.

15th July

You may have been wondering where I was the week before last, but I gave the game away when I returned last Monday. We spent a week in Egypt diving and enjoying unbroken sunshine.

              Masked butterfly fish

Unfortunately I got a chest infection 5 days into the holiday and had to spend a day in bed. Oh well, could have been worse; at least I didn't get any stomach problems. I've put a few of the phots into my Holiday Album if you would like to have a look.

23rd June

Presented the weather from the banks of the Severn at Aust Services. Lovely evening:

18th June

Had a great weekend along the Somerset coast. We were invited to Alex Lovell's wedding reception so we decided to make the most of it and booked a B&B at Watchet.

       On the harbour wall at Watchet

Alex's wedding was at St Audries, West Quantoxhead. Needless to say she looked lovely and the reception was really good. On the Sunday we caught a steam train on the West Somerset railway out to Minehead. I was surprised just how many trainspotters were out for the day. They lined the platforms, they stood on the bridges and they filled the carriages. We're not train buffs but it was great fun.

              Waiting for the train

13th June

We seem to have had a spate of UFO sightings recently.  Unfortunately most of them are uncorroborated and lacking any photographic evidence. Sometimes the most bizarre descriptions turn out to be nothing more than someone's first sighting of the International Space Station or even one of the evening planets.

But what about this one...

           Kim James's 'UFO'

Kim James took this shot (and one more) last Saturday at about 2130, from Knowle in Bristol, looking westwards. She saw it with the naked eye before dashing to grab a camera, so it is unlikely to a reflection of any kind.

She watched it a for a minute or two, so it couldn't have been a fireball or an artificial satellite. My best explanation was that it could have been a high-flying miltary jet, dumping fuel in flight, and then burning it using afterburners. Apparently, the dumping of fuel in such a way is a fairly common occurence.

I have to say that even on the original image it was not possible to detect the aircraft itself, but it could well have been there but beyond the resolution of the camera (and naked eye).

Could it have been a piece of space debris? Illuminated cirrus cloud? We may never know.

20th May

I ran the Keynsham 10K race at the weekend. I had been invited to present the prizes after the race, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and run it as well.

                      Approaching the finishing line

It was a well organised event and about 500 runners took part. I'm hoping that I can now up my weekly mileage towards the 30 mile mark by the end of the month as I continue to train for the Abingdon Marathon in October.

16th May

Intro of new weather team