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Michael Fish
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{{short description| British weather forecaster (born 1944)}} {{Other people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}} {{Use British English|date=September 2017}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Michael Fish | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|MBE|FRMetS}} | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = <!-- just the name, without the File: or Image: prefix or enclosing [[brackets]] --> | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1944|04|27}} | birth_place = [[Eastbourne]], [[Sussex]], England | education = [[Eastbourne College]] | alma_mater = [[City University London]] | occupation = [[Meteorologist]] | years_active = {{hlist|1962β2016|2022}} | employer = [[Met Office]] | known_for = | notable_works = | style = | television = [[BBC]] | title = | spouse = {{marriage|Susan Fish|1968}} | children = 2 | awards = [[Television and Radio Industries Club|TRIC]] Award | footnotes = | website = {{URL|michael-fish.com}} }} <!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Michael Fish 2007.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Michael Fish making a special appearance in 2007, on the 20th anniversary of the [[Great Storm of 1987|Great Storm]]]] --> '''Michael Fish''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|MBE|FRMetS}} (born 27 April 1944) is a British [[weather forecasting|weather forecaster]]. From 1974 to 2004, he was a television presenter for [[BBC Weather]]. ==Career== Fish was born on 27 April 1944 in [[Eastbourne]], Sussex.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Fish|first1=Michael|title=Biography of Michael Fish|url=http://www.michael-fish.com/michael-fish/file/biography.php|website=Michael Fish Website|access-date=6 January 2017}}</ref> Educated at Osmington School then [[Eastbourne College]] and [[City University London]], Fish was the longest-serving broadcast meteorologist on [[British television]]. He joined the [[Met Office]] in 1962 and started on [[BBC Radio]] in 1971, moving to the role on television in 1974. Fish was appointed a [[Member of the Order of the British Empire]] (MBE) in the [[2004 Birthday Honours]].<ref>United Kingdom list: {{London Gazette |issue=57315 |supp=y |pages=16 |date=11 June 2004}} </ref> He was retired and made his final forecast on 6 October 2004 on the ''[[BBC Ten O'Clock News]]'' bulletin. In a specially extended report<ref name="lastbbc">{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akpjFhYs2ko |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/akpjFhYs2ko |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=BBC Weather 6th October 2004: Farewell Michael Fish |publisher=BBC |date=6 October 2004}}{{cbignore}}</ref> fellow forecaster [[Ian McCaskill]] paid tribute to Fish in stating that "Michael is the last of the true weatherman you will ever see. Michael can actually interpret the skies β he can do the weather forecast the hard way: the old way that people don't do any more, because nowadays most of the decisions are made by the computer." That year, Fish was also awarded the [[Television and Radio Industries Club|TRIC]] Award for TV Weather Presenter of the Year and ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' gave him the honour of "National Treasure". Michael Fish also co-authored a book with [[Paul Hudson]] and [[Ian McCaskill]] called ''Storm Force: Britain's Wildest Weather'', published in October 2007. He was awarded honorary degrees by [[City University London]] in 1996 and [[Exeter University]] in the summer of 2005. More than eight years after retiring from the BBC national forecasts team, he made a return to regular forecasting, presenting a weekly weather forecast for Netweather.tv. He resumed forecasting on [[BBC South East Today]], providing holiday cover for the regular forecaster and has also taken to acting. He is a patron of numerous organisations and charities. He has since retired from presenting his weekly forecast on Netweather.tv as announced on the 24 December 2021. ==Hurricane controversy== A few hours before the [[Great Storm of 1987]] broke, on 15 October 1987, Fish said during a televised weather 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!". Fish was wrong. The [[storm]] was the worst to hit [[South East England]] for three centuries, causing record damage and killing 19 people.<ref name="BBCFish">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-41616367/michael-fish-revisits-1987-s-great-storm | title=Michael Fish revisits 1987's Great Storm|date=16 October 2017|work=BBC|access-date=16 October 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref> In later years, Fish claimed that he had been referring to that year's Atlantic [[Hurricane Floyd (1987)|Hurricane Floyd]] affecting the [[Florida Keys]] at the time,<ref name="florida">{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19923565 |title=Michael Fish and the 1987 Storm |publisher=BBC |date=15 October 2012 |access-date=24 August 2013}}</ref> in a link to a news story in the BBC One O'Clock News that preceded the weather bulletin. But he did not mention Florida in the weather, which was made amid widespread worries about a coming storm: that morning, the ''Surrey Mirror'' had warned of "furious gales".<ref>{{cite web|title=Remembering the 1987 hurricane: 28 years ago this week|url=http://www.surreymirror.co.uk/remembering-1987-hurricane-28-years-ago-week/story-27984062-detail/story.html|website=Surrey Mirror|access-date=9 January 2017|date=14 October 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015141234/http://www.surreymirror.co.uk/Remembering-1987-hurricane-28-years-ago-week/story-27984062-detail/story.html|archive-date=15 October 2015}}</ref> He did go on to warn of high winds for the UK, although the storm that actually occurred was far stronger than he had predicted, albeit technically not a hurricane. 15 years later he commented that if he were given a penny for every mention of that episode of The Weather, he would be a millionaire. In 2012, a clip of the bulletin was shown as part of a video montage in the London [[2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19923565 |title=BBC News β Great Storm of 1987: Michael Fish's 'white lie' |publisher=BBC |date=15 October 2012 |access-date=24 August 2013}}</ref> In reaction to the controversy, the term "the Michael Fish effect" has been coined, whereby British weather forecasters are now inclined to predict "a worst-case scenario in order to avoid being caught out".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090528/tuk-gloomy-met-office-forecast-cost-seas-a7ad41d.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531121004/http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090528/tuk-gloomy-met-office-forecast-cost-seas-a7ad41d.html|title=Gloomy Met Office forecast 'cost seaside town millions'|archive-date=31 May 2009}}</ref> The term "Michael Fish moment" is applied to public forecasts, on any topic, which turn out to be embarrassingly wrong.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Usborne|first1=Simon|title=Brexit wasn't a 'Michael Fish moment': but economics does need to change|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/08/not-a-michael-fish-moment-for-economics-andy-haldane|access-date=9 January 2017|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=8 January 2017}}</ref> Fish said in a BBC interview that there was actually no woman caller who phoned in to the BBC regarding the storm, although over the years many have claimed to be her. It was in fact a [[Lie|white lie]] he made up himself, as a colleague in the studio told him his mother in Wales was going to Florida and mentioned that she had heard there was a storm coming, so he thought it would be a good opening line to start the weather with.<ref name="florida"/> ==Personality and popular culture== Fish had a record dedicated to him in 1985 by the punk group Rachel and Nicki called ''"I wish, I wish, he was like Michael Fish"''. This was featured on ''[[Wogan]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.michael-fish.com/biography.asp |title=Biography of Michael Fish β MBE Hon. D.Sc. FRMetS |publisher=Michael-fish.com |date=27 April 1944 |access-date=24 August 2013}}</ref> In 2012, Fish worked with a fashion company to coordinate a [[BASE jumping|BASE jump]] from a block of flats in central London to raise awareness of [[climate change]].<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/video-watch-michael-fish-base-1271990 |title=Video: Watch Michael Fish B.A.S.E jump for climate change awareness |newspaper=[[Daily Mirror]] |publisher=[[Trinity Mirror]] |date=21 August 2012 |access-date=24 August 2013}}</ref> In 2017 Fish partnered with [[Fullers Brewery]] for a campaign called #Whenitrainsitpours which gave Twitter followers a free pint of [[London Pride (beer)|London Pride]] each time it rained in London.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/02/03/london-pride-taps-legendary-weatherman-michael-fish-rainy-day-beer-give-away|title=London Pride taps legendary weatherman Michael Fish for rainy day beer give away|newspaper=TheDrum|access-date=13 July 2017}}</ref> Fish lives in [[Twickenham]], south western Greater London.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/10410521/Tree-down-Serves-me-right-says-famous-forecaster-Michael-Fish.html|title='Tree down serves me right says famous forecaster Michael Fish|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=28 October 2013|access-date=2 December 2019}}</ref> ==Other television appearances== Fish appeared on dozens of other television programmes, ranging from scientific broadcasts to comedy shows and quizzes. He was on [[BBC Two|BBC2]]'s game show ''[[Identity (game show)|Identity]]'' on 3 September 2007 as a TV weather forecaster. On 14 October 2007, he appeared on [[BBC Radio 4|Radio 4]]'s Sunday news review ''[[Broadcasting House (radio programme)|Broadcasting House]]'' as a guest newspaper reviewer and delivered the weather forecast at the end of the programme. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the [[Great Storm of 1987|Great Storm]], Fish returned to deliver the weather forecast on the [[BBC]]'s One O'Clock and Six O'Clock news on 15 October 2007. On 18 July 2022, Fish appeared live in the studio on BBC2s Newsnight for a discussion about the heatwave implications with Presenter Kirsty Wark. Fish repeated he had been advocating more use of Nuclear Energy since the 1970s and hadn't changed his view. ===St Jude storm=== The [[St Jude storm]], also known as Storm Christian, was a severe European wind storm that struck north western Europe on 27 October 2013. Michael Fish was widely quoted, this time telling the public that people should delay going into work if hurricane-force winds hit their area.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10408190/St-Judes-Day-storm-brings-hurricane-strength-winds-to-UK.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131030060042/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10408190/St-Judes-Day-storm-brings-hurricane-strength-winds-to-UK.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 30 October 2013 |title=St Jude's Day storm brings hurricane-strength winds to UK |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=28 October 2013}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== {{wikiquote}} *{{IMDb name|id=0279295|name=Michael Fish}} *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3713030.stm Walking into the sunset] * [http://www.knightayton.co.uk/male-presenters/michael-fish Michael Fish] at Knight Ayton Management *{{Official website|http://www.michael-fish.com}} *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/media/video/otdvideo/87/10/16/7023_16-10-87?size=4x3&bgc=6699CC&nbram=1&nbram=1&bbram=1&news=1 The famous broadcast, 1987] *[http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=michaelfish;sess= The weekly netweather.tv forecast] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fish, Michael}} [[Category:1944 births]] [[Category:Alumni of City, University of London]] [[Category:BBC weather forecasters]] [[Category:English meteorologists]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:People educated at Eastbourne College]] [[Category:People from Eastbourne]]
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