Michael Fish MBE (born 27 April 1944 in Eastbourne, Sussex) is a semi-retired British weather forecaster, best known for his BBC Weather television presentations, although he was actually employed by the Met Office.He became infamous in the wake of the Great Storm of 1987; a few hours before the storm broke, on 15 October 1987, he said during a forecast: "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way... well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't!". That evening, the worst storm to hit South East England for three centuries caused record damage and killed 19 people.More than eight years after retiring from the BBC national forecast, he is now making a return to regular forecasting, presenting a weekly weather forecast for Netweather.tv and occasional forecasts for BBC South East Today, BBC London and Radio Kent.
Broadcast Meteorologist at the Meteorological Office. [June 2004]
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Weatherman on BBC television from 1974 until his retirement in October 2004. He once gained notoriety in 1987 for telling viewers not to worry about a hurricane which was rumoured to be on the way to Florida. The following day, in southern England, 15 million trees were lost, among them many valuable specimens. Trees blocked roads and railways, and brought down electricity and telephone lines. Hundreds of thousands of homes in England remained without power for over 24 hours. Falling trees and masonry damaged or destroyed buildings and cars. Numerous small boats were wrecked or blown away. A ship capsized at Dover, and a Channel ferry was driven ashore near Folkestone! Since the incident, the Florida hurricane Michael Fish mentioned has often been erroneously attributed to the UK storm, which was unconnected.
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He was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to Broadcasting.
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