The BBC has revealed weather presenter Sara Blizzard is exiting after 26 years. The presenter for the BBC weather forecasts on East Midlands Today and North West Tonight will be hanging up her weather maps in February.
Sara, 43, joined BBC East Midlands in 1999, replacing Lisa Dransfield as the main weather presenter. Her surname, which is her family name, has caused a stir with viewers over the years, with some viewers describing it as ‘apt’, ‘very funny’ and ‘prophetic’, while others said they thought they were being ‘pranked’.
Sara, who trained as a dancer and actor at Pattison College in Coventry, West Midlands, first started broadcasting for hospital radio at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry and also worked behind the scenes at local independent station Mercia FM, before she joined Leicester Sound.
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Ms Blizzard was then asked for a screen test by Live TV in Canary Wharf, east London, and was offered a job as a newsreader and reporter at one of their affiliates in Liverpool, Merseyside. Announcing her depature next month, BBC East Midlands wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “After 26 years, weather presenter Sara Blizzard is leaving the BBC,” adding a snowflake and crying emoticon.
The statement added: “Sara, who joined BBC East Midlands Today in 1999, is such a familiar face on our screens. You’ll still be able to see her on the TV and hear her on the radio until February.”
Sara discussed her love for the job in her presenter profile on the BBC East Midlands Today website. She wrote: “I really do enjoy the job because it is so varied and always live.
“We do not have an auto-cue to rely on during the forecast. We also have to talk for whatever duration is required, so it always keeps us on our toes.”