Weatherman Kettley says TV rivals are a shower

He is a veteran television weatherman familiar to millions of viewers. But now he has moved to the radio, John Kettley seems to feel little loyalty to his former peers.

The presenter has launched a full-blooded attack on TV weathermen and women, accusing them of talking "absolute rubbish".

"I am spitting feathers at the moment," he said as he delivered his bulletin on Radio 5 Live's breakfast show earlier this week.

"I have just been looking at the weather forecast on the television. Anybody who watches television forecasts and tries to tie it up with what I say sometimes must be very confused because they are totally different this morning, as far as the week is concerned.

"It talks about it being dry and mild across England and Wales this week. Absolute rubbish! Even now there's showers heading towards Cumbria... and by Thursday we will all be very wet across the South.

"So I apologise but sometimes I just can't hold it."

It is not the first time Kettley - such an iconic figure that he even had a hit song written about him - has lambasted his fellow forecasters.

When he quit TV weather in 2000 he courted controversy by saying viewers felt male forecasters had more credibility. "I don't have any problem at all with women doing the job generally," he

said at the time. "But I do get a lot of mail from viewers who say they would rather have me doing reports than girls. They complain that they pout and flash their eyes."

Today TV forecasters hit back at Kettley's broadside.

Claire Nasir, who was presenting GMTV's weather at the same time on Monday morning, said: "He is denying 20 years of his own career as a TV presenter." Explaining that TV and radio forecasts involved different skills for different audiences, she said: "We have less time and rely far more on graphics which means you are not describing it as much. I have at most two minutes and the emphasis may be different.

"On a Monday morning GMTV viewers want to know whether they will have to scrape ice off their cars or take an umbrella to work - they are not that bothered about Thursday afternoon. But the source of information is almost always the same - the Met Office.

"Sometimes it's up to the presenter to interpret that. I am, and he is, Met Officetrained. But 50 per cent of weather broadcasters are not." Nasir, 34, who used to present 5 Live's weather, said: "I have a lot of respect for John Kettley - he is a very good meteorologist. He has been in the business so many years and if he thinks a broadcast has the wrong emphasis he has a right to say so.

"We are an easy target because it's an inexact science. There's always an element of chaos involved and forecasts tend to be about 80 per cent accurate.

"We all strive, with the information we have, to do the best possible forecast."

Kettley, who inspired The Tribe of The Toffs' 1988 punk anthem John Kettley (Is A Weatherman) which reached number 21 in the charts, told the Standard: "I would rather not make any more comment.

"But I am a freelance presenter these days at 5 Live and a consultant to other commercial organisations. I have no ties to the Met Office since I resigned over four years ago. I did learn an awful lot about meteorology in my time with the Met Office and I can now claim over 25 years' experience.

"So I feel well qualified to present the facts as I see fit and it remains an honour so to do."