Meet Helen Roberts - The first Socio-Meteorologist with the Met Office

Helen Roberts has a breadth of experience in weather forecasting and is the Met Office’s first socio-meteorologist.

Helen’s fascination with ‘Big Science’ started as a little girl in the southwest of England, looking at sunsets and thunderstorms from her bedroom window. Listening to Helen on this podcast you can hear how that curiosity has evolved and lasted right the way through her career.

She talks about changes in communicating the weather forecast and how the role of a forecaster is about helping people and businesses to make better decisions, to strive and to stay safe. She discusses the challenges of making a relatable forecast, particularly in severe and impactful weather like the unprecedented spell of hot weather in July 2022, when a number of places in the UK reached a staggering 40C. Something most of the population would have never experienced.

Helen then speaks about weather and natural disasters which can have a profound psychological impact. Sadly after this episode was recorded there was a natural disaster in Turkey and Syria where the fallout from an earthquake continues to cause devastation; this part of the episode offers some perspective of the aftermath of an event like this.

We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we did. You can follow Helen on Twitter @Weather_Helen or LinkedIn at Helen Roberts.

If you would like to follow our podcast on Twitter we are @4loveofweather or Instagram @Fortheloveofweather.

Thanks so much for listening and supporting the podcast and we hope you leave this episode loving the weather that little bit more.