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Derek's Welsh Weather

Derek's Welsh Weather

You’d have to go a long way to find a man more passionate about weather than Derek Brockway. Now BBC Wales’ inimitable weatherman wants to share his fascination for weather with Welsh viewers, who seem to be almost as obsessed with the subject as he is.

Did you know that the summer of 1911 in Wales was so hot that pigs reportedly melted? Or that statistics prove that violent crime rates soar when temperatures rise?

BBC Wales’ weatherman Derek Brockway has a stack of fascinating facts up his sleeve, ready to front his first solo TV show Derek’s Welsh Weather (Monday, June 28, BBC One Wales). Covering each of the four seasons in turn, the man who brings his enthusiasm to Wales Today viewers each night is hoping to spark the kind of interest in weather he’s had since the drought summer of 1976.

“I was an eight year-old boy growing up in Barry and it was a fantastic summer - endless sunshine and heat, six weeks off school - and I became fascinated with the weather,” he recalls. “I’ve been mad about it ever since.”

“I used to drive my parents bonkers, interrupting their TV viewing by changing the channels all the time so I could see the BBC and ITV forecasts. I’d chat away to the neighbours about the weather, and they’d ask me what I thought it’d be like – in fact they still do that,” he laughs.

“Surrounded by sea, and with high mountains and deep valleys, we often say that we can get all four seasons in one day in Wales. There’s always something to talk about and no two days are the same – that’s what makes it so interesting.”

Derek’s Welsh Weather explains why the weather works the way it does, how it’s shaped Wales, and how our livelihoods – and indeed our lives – are dependent on it. Derek shows how he compiles his forecasts based on thousands of pieces of information from ships, satellites, balloons and dozens of very local stations scattered throughout Wales recording wind, rainfall and sunshine.

“The Met Office computer gives me the big picture, but since it can be sunny in Porth and raining in Pontypridd, a little local knowledge helps,” he says.

In the first programme, Derek looks at summer. Glamorgan cricket captain Robert Croft explains how he uses Derek’s forecasts to give him an edge in the battle of wits on the pitch. And lifeguards and sun-worshippers reflect on the delights and dangers of beach weather at the height of summer.

Throughout the series, Derek will be charting the history of the Welsh climate with his Top Ten countdown of Weather Events, season by season, drawn from 150 years of Met Office records.

So will Derek’s Long Hot Summer of 1976 have made it to No. 1 in the chart? There’s stiff competition. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Wales was back on August 2, 1990 - 35.2ºC, 95ºF at Hawarden Bridge.

But for many of us, bad summer weather is even more memorable, like the tropical storm of July 1999 – it left 50,000 Welsh people without power. Or the August Bank Holiday of 1986, when the tail end of Hurricane Charley lashed the country.

Derek’s Top Ten Summers

  • 10 - The Summers of the 1990s - The hottest decade in history
  • 9 - The Molten Pigs of 1911 - A very, very, hot summer
  • 8 - July 29,1999 - A tropical storm with flash flooding
  • 7 - 1816 - The year without a summer, caused by a volcanic eruption in the East Indies
  • 6 - The Red Dust of June 1968 - Blown over to Wales from Spain or North Africa
  • 5 - August Bank Holiday 1986 - The tail end of Hurricane Charley lashes Wales, creating the wettest August Bank Holiday on record
  • 4 - August 2, 1990 - Welsh record temperature of 35.2 C at Hawarden Bridge
  • 3 - The heat wave of August 2003 - Including the ‘hottest day in history’
  • 2 - Summer Twisters - Caught on camera
  • 1 - 1976 - The long, hot summer which ignited Derek’s passion for weather

Derek’s Welsh Weather, Monday, June 28, BBC One Wales, 7.30pm Wednesday, June 30, BBC 2W, 8.30pm Derek’s Welsh Weather (shorts), Tuesday, June 29, BBC 2W, 9.40pm bbc.co.uk/walesweather

Produced and Directed by Nia Dryhurst and John Geraint A Green Bay production for BBC.

There's more about 'Derek's Welsh Weather' at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/weather/sites/weatherstation/pages/d_programmes.shtml