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. 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.
Over the years I presented the Points West weather whilst wing-walking, grass-boarding, swimming, even inside a giant bicycle wheel. You have to be ready for any situation in this business!
The BBC days
First and foremost however, I am a weather forecaster. I was employed by the Met Office. And it is they who gave 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.
Hard at work
Al Jazeera English
All that changed in 2011 when I was invited to work for the Arab news channel Al Jazeera English at their base in Doha, Qatar. My role is as a presenter of world weather 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 a whole continent's weather!
We do both pre-recorded and live forecasts through the day and we also have a production shift which also provides weather stories and blogs for the website - aljazeera.com/weather
Al Jazeera English
My broadcasts can be accessed 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 forecasts are played out during the evening and night at quarter past the hour. Please note all times are GMT.
The Al Jazeera newsroom
With Renu INSIDE a glacier in New Zealand
Away from work I try and make the most of the dry, sunny weather out here. Fishing, swimming, kayaking and diving are all possible for much of the year, until it gets too hot in mid-summer.
My other main interest is running and that can be quite difficult when the temperature is over 40 degrees. I, therefore, spend a lot of time in the gym, training for various races. In January 2012 I completed the Dubai Marathon in 3:47 and I am hoping to knock 10 minutes off that time when I go back there next January. I'm also hoping to complete the Duchy marathon in Cornwall in March 2013.