Helen Willetts (born 28 November 1972 in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England) is a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. She appears regularly on

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, BBC World News, BBC Red Button,

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 2. Willetts is an occasional weather forecaster on the BBC News at Ten on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

Early life

Willetts was born in

, England. She was educated at Ysgol Eirias (Eirias High School) in Colwyn Bay, Wales. She obtained a first class honours degree in

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

in 1993. In February 1994, Willetts joined the Met Office to begin a five-month weather forecaster training course at the Met Office College based at the former RAF Shinfield Park.

Broadcasting career

In July 1994, Willetts moved to the Weather Centre in Cardiff. From 1995, she was a forecaster on both BBC Television and

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. In 1997, she joined BBC Weather in London to work for

Awards

In March 2006, she was awarded the Television and Radio Industry Club (TRIC) award for best TV weather presenter.

Personal life

Helen played

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

internationally for

. She enjoys walking, cycling and travelling.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willetts, Helen Sarah 1972 births Living people Alumni of the University of Nottingham BBC weather forecasters BBC World News People from Chester People from Colwyn Bay Welsh female badminton players Sportspeople from Cheshire English meteorologists