He graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1979 with an Honours degree in Physics and Geography.
He worked at the British Halley Research Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf for two years from October 1979 where he made routine observations of the weather and helped to maintain the base.
When he returned to the UK in May 1982 he joined the Met Office where he spent a year as a weather forecaster in training.
He spent several years forecasting at RAF Honington in Suffolk and on the Benbecula island in the Outer Hebrides, where he forecast for the Army missile range on South Uist before moving to the Norwich Weather Centre in 1989.
He presented his final weather bulletin on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 9 December 2016.