'Heather the Weather' to quit BBC Scotland after 15 years

Published on Wednesday 9 December 2009 15:47

BBC weather presenter Heather Reid is to leave the corporation after 15 years, it was announced today.

• 'Hello there': Heather Reid

She is quitting television to devote more time to her interests in science.

BBC bosses described her today as a "national institution".

Paisley-born Reid, affectionately known as 'Heather the Weather', was awarded an OBE for services to physics in 2006.

She joined the Met Office in 1993 and became BBC Scotland's weather forecaster a year later.

Reid said she was leaving to pursue "exciting and challenging" projects involving science education.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Reporting Scotland and will greatly miss my BBC Scotland colleagues.

"However over the past few years, I have found it increasingly difficult to balance my science education work with my role as BBC Scotland weather presenter.

"2010 brings exciting and challenging times in education and I'm looking forward to becoming more involved."

BBC Scotland chiefs paid tribute to the forecaster.

Head of news and current affairs Atholl Duncan said: "The Scottish weather forecasts may never be the same again. Heather has become a national institution over the past 15 years. She will be greatly missed by the Reporting Scotland team.

"We all wish her well with her new challenges in science and education."

As well as presenting the weather on Reporting Scotland, Reid has served as a trustee at the Glasgow Science Centre. She was chairman of the Institute of Physics in Scotland for two years, and is also a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and has an honorary lectureship in the physics and astronomy department of Glasgow University.

Reid studied physics at Edinburgh University and took a masters degree in image processing at Edinburgh's meteorology department.

Her last weather broadcast on Reporting Scotland will be Tuesday December 22.