Your Weather Covered

'As we head for the weekend, Angie, what have you got for us?'

'Well, a lot of dry weather, so that's the good news.

'There's plenty of scope for getting things done outdoors this weekend,

'although it won't always...'

Well, I've been based here as a weather forecaster at

BBC Northern Ireland since January 1996, would you believe?

Quite a long time and it has flown in, basically

because our weather is changing all the time.

It's just always interesting. Every day's different.

Today got off to quite a dismal start...

'You think back, forecasters actually had to sit down

'and manually draw charts,

'but technology has brought that on leaps and bounds.

'It means we can get the information out to the public

'a lot quicker, as well.'

We have a conference twice a day on most shifts,

where all the regions and nations come together.

-Hi, it's Cee in Belfast.

-Hi.

-Hi, Steve, how are you?

-Yes, all right, thanks.

'And then, from that, we can ask questions that are more

'specific to Northern Ireland.'

Although they give us the weather story,

they don't know the detail of Northern Ireland like we do.

We have our own little microclimates all dotted around Northern Ireland.

So, for example, in County Down, it tends to be drier,

but whereas you have Fermanagh

in the South West, it tends to be a lot wetter,

because that's where our weather systems come in.

Then, the North Coast, it's ideal, when it's windy, for surfers.

We're right on the edge of a huge sea mass.

We're right on the edge of a continent.

We're also at a junction between polar cold air to the north

and warm air, tropical air to the south.

So, that changes our weather all the time.

When people are working during the week, maybe the forecast

isn't as important, apart from maybe in the morning, how are you

going to get to work, if the weather is going to disrupt things.

But also, everybody's looking forward to the weekend.

Doing the weather is a very functional thing.

It's about being out there, it's about getting out

and making the most of the day.

And that's really what I'm trying to get across

every time I do a forecast.

When can you get out? When can you do the great stuff?

'These are the kind of places people take pictures of

'when they're out and about on their time off.

'Gives you an idea of how your forecast...

'Is it going to influence what people do for the weekend?'

Isn't that nice?

People will e-mail you and go,

"Oh, thanks for putting my picture up."

Or "That was a really nice shot of such and such a place.

"I didn't know where that was."

So it's definitely something that people like to see.

That's beautiful. Look at the lovely colours.

I like a little bit of sunshine.

Always puts a smile on people's face. I like a little bit of warmth.

That's not to say I don't like a frosty, crisp, winter's morning,

when the sun's shining, as well, cos that's equally beautiful.

I love snow.

When we have one single flake of snow,

everybody's online, talking to you about it.

I'm a sunshiny kind of guy. I only do weather when it's good.

I love thunderstorms.

I would also like to go to the States

and do a bit of storm chasing.

If BBC Newsline wants to fund me to go and do that, hey,

I'm happy to do it.