He was educated at the independent school St. John's College, Southsea, in Portsmouth, where he took A-levels in mathematics, physics and art, followed by the University of Reading where he gained a BSc (Hons) in Meteorology.
He became famous for raising "the finger" towards, and after a gentle tease from, the BBC news presenter Simon McCoy,[2] in the belief that he was off camera.
A clip of his shocked and horrified facial expression has received more than 5.5 million hits on the video sharing website YouTube.
After a set of cost-cutting measures and choice of a smaller core of national weather presenters, he was removed from broadcasting on the BBC in 2010.
[4][6] Schafernaker modelled for the front cover of Attitude[7][8] Active a British gay magazine in January 2010 and was again photo featured by them in 2017.