Ben Rich on weather and the conversation about climate change in the UK

In this new episode of For the Love of Weather podcast we chat with meteorologist, weather presenter and author Sean Batty, who dives into his debut children’s book “The Worst Christmas Weather Ever.” This is a beautiful story that explores real events of climate change through the adventures of Santa Claus and focus’ on children as the hero’s.Sean emphasises the importance of hope and offers practical solutions to climate change while encouraging positive action. If you would like a signed copy of his book - https://www.seanbatty.co.uk/store/p1/TheWorstChristmasWeatherEver.htmlAnd you can follow Sean on socials @SeanBattyTVFor a signed copy of Sean’s book, visit his website.You can follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofweather and on X @4loveofweather. We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and leave loving the weather a little bit more. See

In this episode we chat to the brilliant Sarah Kent - a meteorologist and founder of Wild Soul Coaching.Sarah lives on a narrow boat and has done so for the past 2 years, navigating UK waterways. Her curiosity about the world around her as a child led her to science but she bas always had the soul of a philosopher.We get a practical insight into life on a boat and how being a meteorologist comes in handy. But we also learn about what really means to live a sustainable life and to be in each moment of a day. Through her coaching Sarah empowers women to live extraordinary lives, and to make decisions that put positive ripples out into the world. In this episode she also reminds us that time is precious.If you would like to find out more about Sarah's business Wild Soul Coaching you can find her at https://www.sarahlkent.com/You can follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofweather and on X @4loveofweather. We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and leave loving the weather a little bit more.

This is the second episode from the Blue Earth Summit 2024. Please check out our instagram feed @fortheloveofweather to get a flavour of what we got up to.We captured and shared as many speakers and guests as we could and yet again we were blown away by the amazing conversations we had and most importantly people’s willingness to give us their time to talk about what they were passionate about.The Blue Earth Summit is held over 3 days and plays host to 5,000+ decision makers, industry pioneers, provocative thought leaders, sustainability trailblazers, insightful solutions and boundary-pushing start ups. It’s the place to explore, meet, learn, collaborate and take action.In this episode of the podcast we speak to Avery Johnston from KPMG, Blue Earth Summit co-founder Linley Lewis, Ben Pollack from Climate Cartographic and interviewer Hannah MacInnes. Avery Johnstone is a manager in KPMG's Global Decarbonisation Hub. KPMG are doing work around story telling to bridge the gap between the decision makers in big business today and young people that are going to inherit those roles in the future. Avery has a powerful ethos about business and climate change. She says that that you don’t have to be a full time activist to impact change. People can use their autonomy, skill and education to make a difference - ‘Mobilising everyone is what we need’. You can find Avery Johnstone on LinkedIn. Linley Lewis COO & Co-Founder of the Blue Earth Summit. Linley and the founders saw an opportunity to bring his love of the outdoors and sustainable business and co-created the Blue Earth Summit. Linley talks a little about climate fatigue and how the Blue Earth Summit is designed to inspire and connect through motivational speaking while creating a space for sustainable business, start up’s and philanthropy. You can find Linley on LinkedIn. Our third guest is Ben Pollack a Co-Founder & Strategy Director of Climate Cartographics. Ben felt he needed a change in his career and drew on his love of the outdoors to harness his data skills to develop impactful visualisations of ecology and the environment. His business offers a design service for companies wanting to make impactful visualisations through using 3D modelling. Check out their website climatecartographis.com to find examples of their work. Ben is also on LinkedIn. Our final guest is Hannah MacInnes an interviewer at the Blue Earth Summit. Hannah talks about how important it is for all ages to be represented in climate from very young to very old. She remarks on the changing nature of audiences, mainly with audiences becoming younger but that we can still learn from older members of society and how it is deeply engrained in them to live within their means while having a huge respect for nature. You can find Hannah MacInnes at @hannahmacin.

We were thrilled to return to the Blue Earth Summit 2024 this time in London. Please check out our instagram feed @fortheloveofweather to get a flavour of what we got up to. We captured and shared as many speakers and guests as we could and yet again we were blown away by the amazing conversations we had and most importantly people’s willingness to give us their time to talk about what they were passionate about.The Blue Earth Summit is held over 3 days and plays host to 5,000+ decision makers, industry pioneers, provocative thought-leaders, sustainability trailblazers, insightful solutionists and boundary-pushing start ups. It’s the place to explore, meet, learn, collaborate and take action.In this episode of the podcast we speak to three inspiring individuals.Nicole van der Velden - Sailor for the Spain SailGP team Gemma Metheringham - PhD student and found of @the_elephant_in_my_wardrobeCoco Peuscet - Marketing manager at Reskinned. Our first guest is Nicole van der Velden, who is a Spanish-Aruban sailor. She tells us all about SailGP. Not only are they reducing their carbon footprint, but they are pushing boundaries in gender equality in sailing. If you have never seen SailGP, it is like formula 1 but on water. It is such an exciting sport and it was a geniune joy to talk to Nicole. Her enthusiasm is infectious! You can find Nicole on socials at @nicolevelden. Our second gues is Gemma Metheringham aka @the_elephant_in_my_wardrobe . She is now a PhD student at Nottinham Trent and her passion is to understand whether the growing second hand market can be a lever that decarbonises mainstream fashion. Gemma talks us through the psychology and value we place on second hand clothes. It really was a fascinating chat about what the term 'valuable' means. How do we feel about clothes if we know the story behind them or if we can see and try them on versus buying on line. Gemma was inspiring and thought provoking and we can't wait to see how this journey goes for her. Our final conversation in this podcast is with Coco Peuscet, who is the marketing manager at 'Reskinned'. This conversation absolutely got our heads in a spin! If you didn't know anything about new fashion, your jaw will drop when you find out what happens to most of the clothes that we send back to our well known brands. Although Coco sees the reality of what happens to clothes we send back she was full of top tips and really useful information that is easy for all of us to do. Small things all add up to make a big difference. You can find Coco Peuscet on LinkedIn

Meet Ben Rich - presenter, meteorologist and journalist. Ben can’t remember when he didn’t love the weather. Growing up in south-west England meant from a young age he understood how quickly the weather could change. He says his mother tells him he was obsessed with the time and maps and so broadcasting the weather seemed like the only road for Ben. Ben worked through the record breaking heat in the UK where 40 degrees Celsius made the headlines. He says it was a profound moment that impacted him emotionally as the reality of a changing climate is now more evident than ever in weather broadcasts. The discussion of climate change is an important one and Ben says that engaging with all types of audience is so important in communicating the reality of climate change and simply telling someone ‘you’re wrong is not the answer’. Listen on to hear a beautiful discussion on all things weather and how we move on communicating climate change in the news. You can also learn a little more about Ben’s favourite cloud and who he would take to dinner and why the only option for him would be a cocktail on a beach. If you would like to follow Ben on instagram @benrichweather and on X @ben_rich.You can follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofweather and on X @4loveofweather.We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and leave loving the weather a little bit more.

Meet Zoë Johnson, meteorologist, journalist and author. She released her first book this year as a co-author of the Weather Almanac 2025.Zoë joined forces with Storm Dunlop who is an astronomy and meteorology author, to write this next almanac. This is a continuation of the series with the publishers Harper Collins.In our chat with Zoë, she tells us she can’t remember a time when she didn’t love the weather. She talks us through the journey of becoming a meteorologist at Weather Quest to then becoming the BBC Look East COP26 Climate reporter and how this led on to her current career in journalism to then becoming an author.Listen on if you want to learn more about the last frost fair in London, Joanne Simpson - the first woman to get a PhD in meteorology, which Dr. Who is Zoë’s favourite and what is the best colour banana to eat.If you would like to contact Zoë you can find her on all socials on @zoejweather.You can follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofweather and on X @4loveofweather.We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and leave loving the weather a little bit more.

We both find weather satellites fascinating and so really enjoyed recording this episode of the podcast. We were incredibly lucky to be able to talk to Graeme Mason and Thorsten Fehr from the European Space Agency in this episode. Graeme is the Meteorological Programmes Manager at the European Space Agency and is responsible for the implementation of a number of satellite missions including the Meteosat Third Generation and the Arctic Weather Satellite, which we speak to him about in this episode. Thorsten is the Mission Scientist for the Earth Explorer Programme mission EarthCARE, which stands for Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer, and is the European Space Agency’s clouds and aerosol mission. In this episode we learn all about the new Arctic Weather satellite, which is due to be launched in the middle of August 2024 and is actually going to be launched alongside 99 other satellites. We also learn about EarthCARE, which was launched at the end of May 2024. In this episode we cover lots about satellites in general, including how they range in size from a fridge to the size of a bus; as well as how long it takes to develop these satellites before they even get launched. If you have any questions about weather satellites after listening to this episode, then definitely reach out to Graeme and Thorsten on LinkedIn. You can also find out about these satellite missions as well as many more on the European Space Agency’s website https://www.esa.int/ You can follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofweather and on X @4loveofweather. We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and leave loving the weather a little bit more.

At the start of July 2024 we took the podcast to the Royal Meteorological Society’s first ever weather and climate conference. Over the two days we were lucky to be able to speak to lots of amazing scientists and attend some brilliant talks. While there we also got a chance to talk to three brilliant scientists in a series of mini podcasts, which we have put together in this special episode. Our first guest is Amanda Maycock, who is a professor of climate dynamics at the University of Leeds. We spoke to Amanda about how she got into academia, how she communicates complex subjects to her students as well as women in science. Next, we spoke to Professor Myles Allen, who is the head of atmospheric, oceanic and planetary physics in the department of physics at the University of Oxford. As well as professor of geosystem science in the school of geography and the environment. We spoke to Myles about attribution studies, which are a way of looking at how climate change is impacting weather events. Finally, we got the opportunity to speak to Professor Penny Endersby, who is the Chief Executive of the Met Office. In this conversation with Penny, we learnt about what the Met Office does as well as about AI and the potential ways it could be used in weather forecasting. If you want to learn more about the conference, there is lots of content on our social platforms.Instagram: @fortheloveofweatherX: @4loveofweather You can also find out more on the Royal Meteorological Society’s website, where you can also learn more about what the society does.https://www.rmets.org/ We really hope you enjoy this episode and leave loving the weather just a little bit more.

Please welcome Dan Harris, Chartered Meteorologist and Deputy Chief Meteorologist at the UK Met Office.In this episode we chat about sting jets. Dan’s description of sting jets will bring to life this powerful atmospheric wind in a way you may not have understood before.The Great Storm of 1987 in the UK was the first time a sting jet was identified when a unique shape in the clouds was observed in satellite imagery at that time.Although the storm was incredibly destructive there were some positives that followed in the years after the storm with advancements in forecasting science.Were the same event to happen today, it would likely be forecast a few days in advance, leaving time to warn the public, and minimising potential damage.You may also find it interesting to know that Dan is a rubix cube master and you can find him on YouTube solving a cube at remarkable speeds!Dan runs his own weather website roostweather.com. He created the website so that he couldvisualise data in a way that was helpful to him. It is now used by most members of the weather forecasting community.Dan is fun, incredibly intelligent and knows a lot about a lot of things! We couldn’t keep up!An absolute pleasure to chat to and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.You can find Dan onX - @RoostWeatherWeb - roostweather.comAnd as always you can follow the podcast onX - @4loveofweather and on Instagram [email protected] so much for listening and supporting the podcast, and we hope you leave this episode loving the weather just a little bit more.

Meet Georgina and Rebecca, the Antarctic Fire Angels. In January 2024 they pioneered a new route across the Antarctic while skiing unsupported from Union Glacier to the South Pole. The journey took 52 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes.Four years ago Georgina and Rebecca didn’t know each other but they were at the same National Fire Service Conference. That year Sophie Montagne gave the keynote speech. Sophie is the world record holder for Ice Maiden, the first female team to ski across the Antarctic.A five minute conversation with Sophie after the speech was the beginning of what was to become an incredible friendship between Georgina and Rebecca that led on to them completing this epic 1230km journey across the coldest place on earth.Hold your breath while you learn about the terrifying noise of ice crevasses, the silence that can exist in the Antarctic and what it is like to be engulfed in a white-out. What is it like to experience temperatures of minus 41 degrees? climb altitudes of over 4000 metres? And try to keep up with an 8000 calories a day schedule to stay alive.They are now building the Fire Angel Foundation, which will see female fire cadets and girl guides embark on a three month program. This program will culminate in a mini expedition to Sweden where they will build self esteem, confidence and learn to support each other during times of adversity.Not only are Georgina and Rebecca championing incredibly feats of human stamina and endurance but they are truly champions of change for women and girls, carving out a wide and deep path to facilitate that.From start to finish this is an inspiring podcast. It is a story of the human spirit, mental strength and the strength of most importantly a story of friendship.If you would like to learn more about The Antarctic Fire Angels you can find them here:https://antarcticfireangels.co.uk/X - @antarctic_fireInstagram - antarcticfireangelsYou can find their documentary on ITVX - 'Fire & Ice: The Antarctic Fire Angels' https://www.itv.com/walesprogrammes/articles/fire-and-ice-the-antarctic-fire-angelsTheir next adventure is called ‘777’, seven marathons, 7 continents in 7 days. We can’t wait!!And as always you can follow the podcast on ‘X’ we are @4loveofweather and on Instagram @fortheloveofweather.Thanks so much for listening and supporting the podcast, and we hope you leave this episode loving the weather just a little bit more.