Weather Presenter

A weather presenter (also known colloquially in North America as a weatherman or weather broadcaster) is a person who presents the weather forecast daily on radio, television or internet news broadcasts. Using diverse tools, such as projected weather maps, they inform the viewers of the current and future weather conditions, explain the reasons underlying this evolution, and relay to the public any weather hazards and warnings issued for their region, country or larger areas. There are no basic qualifications to become a weather presenter; depending on the country and the media, it can range from an introduction to meteorology for a television host to a diploma in meteorology from a recognized university. Therefore a weather presenter is not to be confused with a meteorologist, or weather forecaster, the holder of a diploma in meteorology.

History

The United States was the first country in which television channels began broadcasting weather reports in the late 1940s, but presenters were doing it on radio well before then. From newsletters of the US Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service), the host of a program traced the depressions, fronts and lows, mentioned in the general situation, and read the forecast. Thus, the host of a popular morning show, NBC's Today show, was chatting live with the Bureau's meteorologist. As the weather report became very popular, national television networks hired professional meteorologists to distinguish themselves from their competitors, but in the early 1960s the "Miss Weather" era began. The latter were seen by broadcast managers as more pleasant to watch, and advertised for local shops.

In 1981, John Coleman, head meteorologist for a Chicago television station (WLS-TV station) and later ABC Good Morning America national morning program, proposed a weather forecasting station project to Frank Batten, the owner of the Virginia newspaper and broadcasting chain Landmark Communications. The latter had realized that many of his readers were buying the newspaper for the weather forecast, and he jumped on the idea. After ten months to find funding and build the infrastructure, The Weather Channel (TWC) began broadcasting on May 2, 1982 from Atlanta, Georgia. This was the first television channel to broadcast weather forecasts 24 hours a day, using a full staff of general meteorologists and even specialists.

In Canada, the first presenter on television was Percy Saltzman, a professional meteorologist, who launched the regular news bulletins on the English-language Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1952. Canada's weather bulletins have developed similarly to those in the United States. However, it is less common to see on-screen meteorologists, and networks invest much less in meteorological equipment, depending on the observations of the Meteorological Service of Canada. On the French-speaking side, Jacques Lebrun at Télé-Métropole, a self-educated presenter, was the most well-known of the earliest weathermen of the 1970s and '80s. The Weather Network, similar to TWC, went live on September 1, 1988, but it uses mostly news persons as presenters.

Other countries have followed similar paths. For instance, the first broadcast of the weather on French television dates back to December 17, 1946 and was presented by Paul Douchy in the Téléjournal program. The forecasters of National Meteorology (now Météo-France) commented live, once a week, with a weather map of the time scheduled for the next day on the RTF. In February 1958, France became one of the first countries to broadcast a daily weather report on television, after the United States, Canada and Great Britain (BBC
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