Derek Brockway - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Derek
Derek
Derek is a male name derived from the same root as the Old German Theodoric, meaning power of the tribe or ruler of the people. Variants recently revived are Deryk, Deric, Derak, the Dutch form Dirk, popularised by the actor Dirk Bogarde, and the Low German Dirk...

Brockway (born in Barry

Barry, Wales

Barry is a town and community in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. Located along the northern coast of the Bristol Channel less than south-southwest of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, Barry is a seaside resort, with attractions including several beaches and the Barry Island Pleasure Park...

, Vale of Glamorgan

Vale of Glamorgan

The Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in the southern part of Glamorgan, South Wales...

) is a Welsh meteorologist employed by the Met Office

Met Office

The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...

and based at BBC Wales

BBC Wales

BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...

in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

Education

Brockway first attended Holton Road Primary School and then Barry Boys Comprehensive from 1979 to 1986. He later went to Coleg Morgannwg

Coleg Morgannwg

Coleg Morgannwg is a further education college located at four main campuses across Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales.The college's main campuses are located in Aberdare Nantgarw Pontypridd and Llwynypia The college also operates a number of outreach centres within local communities...

in Pontypridd

Pontypridd

Pontypridd is both a community and a principal town of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales and is situated 12 miles/19 km north of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff...

, and Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

College of Technology where he received a BTEC

Business And Technology Education Council (BTEC)

The Business and Technology Education Council is the British body which awards vocational qualifications. Such qualifications are commonly referred to as "BTECs"....

Higher National Certificate

A Higher National Certificate is a higher education qualification in the United Kingdom.In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the HNC is a BTEC qualification awarded by Edexcel, and in Scotland, an HNC is a Higher National awarded by the Scottish Qualifications Authority...

in Mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, Statistics

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

and Physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

in 1993. He has also completed professional forecaster training courses at the Met Office College.

Career

Brockway's interest in the weather began as a boy during the long, hot summer of 1976. After A levels, he left school in 1986 and became a Civil Servant and joined the Met Office, based mainly at Cardiff Weather Centre but with spells observing the weather at Cardiff Airport, Birmingham Airport

Birmingham International Airport (UK)

Birmingham Airport , formerly Birmingham International Airport is an airport located east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands, England...

, and eight months in the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...

in 1993/4 working closely with the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

. After further study and promotion, he qualified as a forecaster in 1995 and was posted to Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

Weather Centre, broadcasting on several BBC Radio

BBC Radio

BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

stations across the English Midlands

English Midlands

The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

.

In December 1995 he moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, working at The London Studios

The London Studios

The London Studios is a television studio complex which is owned by London Weekend Television and has been home to the London Weekend ITV provider since 1972...

on South Bank

South Bank

South Bank is an area of London, England located immediately adjacent to the south side of the River Thames. It forms a long and narrow section of riverside development that is within the London Borough of Lambeth to the border with the London Borough of Southwark and was formerly simply known as...

with fellow forecasters Martyn Davies

Martyn Davies

Martyn Davies is a British meteorologist who presents the ITV Weather for British television network ITV.Davies joined the team in 1989, and is its longest serving male weather forecaster....

and John Hammond

John Hammond (weather forecaster)

John Hammond is an English weather forecaster for the BBC. He can be seen presenting weather forecasts on BBC News, BBC One, BBC Red Button, BBC World News and BBC Radio...

, and briefing weather presenters Sian Lloyd, Laura Greene

Laura Greene

- Early life and career :Greene was born in London, England, the daughter of Welsh DIY expert Harry Greene and actress Marjie Lawrence. She is sister of presenter Sarah. Laura was educated at the Gospel Oak Primary School and the Grey Coat Hospital school, London, while also pursuing child acting...

and Femi Oke

Femi Oke

Femi Oke is a British television presenter and journalist.Femi was born in Britain to Nigerian parents. She is a graduate of Birmingham University where she received a bachelors degree in English literature and language...

. As well as preparing the ITV National Weather and Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

weather, Brockway also broadcast on GMTV

GMTV

GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...

's The Sunday Programme presented by Alastair Stewart

Alastair Stewart

Alastair James Stewart OBE is an English journalist and newscaster. Stewart is currently employed by ITN where he is a main newscaster for ITV News.-Early life:...

and Steve Richards

Steve Richards

Steve Richards is a British TV presenter and chief political columnist for The Independent newspaper.-Early life:Richards was educated at Christ's College, formerly a state grammar school, in Finchley, North London, and graduated in History at the University of York in 1981 before securing a place...

.

After a year in London, Brockway took a position at the Met Office headquarters in Bracknell

Bracknell

Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...

as an Environmental Consultant. He returned home to Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

in September 1997 and joined BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

Wales Today replacing Helen Willetts

Helen Willetts

Helen Sarah Willetts is a meteorologist on the BBC. She appears regularly on BBC News, BBC World News, BBC Red Button, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 2, as well as BBC One. Helen is an occasional weather forecaster on the BBC News at Ten and the BBC News channel...

as the lead weather forecaster. Brockway can be seen on BBC Wales Today
BBC Wales Today
Wales Today is the BBC's national news programme for Wales, broadcast on BBC One Wales from the headquarters of BBC Wales in Llandaff, Cardiff....

, broadcasting the lunchtime, evening and late weather forecast. He also presents weather bulletins for BBC Radio Wales

BBC Radio Wales

BBC Radio Wales is the BBC's national radio station broadcasting to Wales in the English language. Operated by BBC Wales, it began broadcasting on 12 November 1978 following the demise of the old "Radio 4 Wales" when BBC Radio 4 became a national network and moved from medium wave to long wave...

during the week from Monday through to Friday.

Brockway has had a lifetime fascination with the weather and has presented a TV show (Derek’s Welsh Weather) and radio show (Derek's Lightning Guide to Weather) on the subject.

A keen walker, he has also had five series on BBC Radio Wales

BBC Radio Wales

entitled Weatherman Walking before the programme was converted into a popular television series. A new series of walks was shown on BBC One Wales in January 2011 with another planned for 2012. His other TV appearances include X-Ray, a Welsh consumer programme, Jamie and Derek's Welsh Weekends and The Big Welsh Challenge a programme in which Welsh personalities are challenged to learn Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

. He has also been a guest panelist on the Radio Wales show What's The Story?.

The BBC Wales weather department expanded in 2008 and Brockway is now joined by weather presenters Sue Charles

Sue Charles

Sue Charles is a Welsh TV and weather presenter for BBC Wales. Sue presents the morning and weekend weather broadcasts for Wales Today, as well as acting as a relief weather presenter for meteorologist Derek Brockway....

and Behnaz Akhgar

Behnaz Akhgar

Behnaz Akhgar is a weather presenter for BBC's Wales Today. She broadcasts the morning and weekend bulletins with Sue Charles and acts as a relief presenter for meteorologist Derek Brockway...

who cover breakfast and the weekends. They also stand in for Derek when he is away. On November 26, 2009, he had an appearance on BBC One in Gavin & Stacey

Gavin & Stacey

Gavin & Stacey is a British comedy television series. A romantic comedy-drama, the show follows the long-distance relationship of Gavin from Billericay in Essex, England, and Stacey from Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The writers of the show, actors James Corden and Ruth Jones, also...

series 3, episode 1 as himself presenting the weather. On January 10, 2010 Brockway was mentioned in the Sunday Times newspaper. On June 22, 2010, Derek featured in the WJEC Higher tier Welsh Second Language Listening and Responding exam, reading the weather headlines and also being interviewed by the exam board's regular interviewers. He introduced himself with his trademark, 'Shw'mae!'

Personal life

Derek lives close to Cardiff. His hobbies include playing squash

Squash (sport)

Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...

and tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, learning the Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

, skiing

Skiing

Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....

, walking, yoga and travel.

Publications

Derek has written four books, two by Gomer Press and two walking books by Y Lolfa

Brockway, Derek & Carey, Julian - Weatherman Walking - Y Lolfa, ISBN 0-8624-3917-5
Brockway, Derek - Whatever the Weather - Gomer Press, ISBN 1-8432-3821-7

His fourth book, a children's book, was published on October 31, 2009

Brockway, Derek & Carpenter, Suzanne - Duck and Starfish - Gomer Press, ISBN 9781848511149

Video links

External links

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