WHO'S RICHARD?
If you live in Bristol, Somerset, Wiltshire or Gloucestershire I am hoping you will be familiar with my weather forecasts on Points West over the last 11 years. I joined the BBC team on a full time basis back in 2000, although I had been making occasional TV appearances as far back as 1995. I was first asked to forecast the weather on the BBC after I went for an audition to cover for the regular weather presenter.
When the opportunity to present the weather on a more permanent basis came along I jumped at the chance. Working with the BBC allowed me to communicate my interest and enthusiasm for weather to as many people as possible.
Over the years I presented the Points West weather whilst wing-walking, grassboarding, swimming, even inside a giant bicycle wheel. You have to be ready for any situation in this business!
Delivering a radio broadcast from the BBC Newsroom
First and foremost however, I am a weather forecaster. I am employed by the Met Office. And it is they who have given me a thorough grounding in meteorology after completing 'A'levels, a BTEC HNC, an Open University degree plus Initial and Advanced Forecaster Courses.
I began my career in the Met Office at RAF Lyneham in 1979. After three years I moved to Exeter Airport, long before the Met Office moved its headquarters to the city. After another three years I moved on to RAF Honington in Suffolk. Much of this time was spent as a weather observer, but I decided that I really wanted to have a go at weather forecasting.
My first, and until 2011, only forecasting post was at Bristol. I worked at the Weather Centre there between 1990 and its closure in 2000 before moving up the road the BBC.
Al Jazeera English
All that changed in 2011 when I was invited to work for the Arab news channel Al Jazeera at their base in Doha, Qatar. Ny new role is as a presenter of world weather. That entails sourcing weather stories, video clips and deciding the main weather events around the world. This is put into a presentation of around one minute and fifteen seconds duration. Not long to describe whole continents.
The work involves pre-recored and live forecasts for AL Jazeera through the day and we also have a production shift which also provides weather stories for the website.
The weather office at Al Jazeera
If you would like to watch my broadcasts on Al Jazeera you can access the station as follows:
Freesat: 203
Freeview: 89
Sky Digital: 514
The times of the forecasts are as follows: 0815, 0915, 1115, 1257, and 1445. These are prerecorded. There are live forecasts at 1120 and 1320. Other prerecorded forecasats are played out during the evening and night at quarter past the hour. Please note all times are GMT.
The Al Jazeera Newsroom
Outside of work life is all about trying to get things organised here in Doha. One of the reasons we came out here was so that we could travel and scuba dive and with places such as the Maldives just a four hour flight away, we shal be indulging in both.
I am hoping to find a badminton club out here so I can maintain by pretty hopeless skills with the shuttlecock and spend fruitless hours trying to develop some sort of touch for a shuttle. It has eluded me for the last 20 years but I'm still optimistic that one day everything will change.
My other main interest is running. Qatar in summer is not conducive to even venturing out of doors. But I've been hitting the gym hard and come the cooler months, from October onwards, I hope to be running along the seafront with a view to competing in the Dubai Marathon in January along with other races in the region. (I did the Abingdon Marathon a few years ago, in under 4 hours, and I feel I've got a few more bigs runs in me before I hang up the running shoes.
With Renu INSIDE a glacier in New Zealand