Weatherman on BBC television from 1974 until his retirement in October
2004. He once gained notoriety in 1987 for telling viewers not to worry
about a hurricane which was rumoured to be on the way to Florida. The
following day, in southern England, 15 million trees were lost, among
them many valuable specimens. Trees blocked roads and railways, and
brought down electricity and telephone lines. Hundreds of thousands of
homes in England remained without power for over 24 hours. Falling
trees and masonry damaged or destroyed buildings and cars. Numerous
small boats were wrecked or blown away. A ship capsized at Dover, and a
Channel ferry was driven ashore near Folkestone! Since the incident,
the Florida hurricane Michael Fish mentioned has often been erroneously
attributed to the UK storm, which was unconnected.