Rain man: Sean Batty on why Scotland loves to hate its weather

Sean Batty has been bringing sunshine into Scotland's homes for nearly two decades, even when forecasting showers and snow. The TV meteorologist's cheerful presenting style and enthusiasm for his role have made him a firm favourite with viewers of all ages, whatever the weather.

From weather-obsessed child to TV forecaster

"My passion for weather started when as a child," Sean told me. "Teachers would ask, 'What do you want to be when you're older?' and everyone in the class would say a firefighter, police officer, or a vet. I would answer, 'A weatherman'. I was obsessed."

When he was seven, his grandparents gave him a weather kit, complete with rain gauge, something to measure wind, weather maps and sticky weather symbols. He loved it and would present forecasts to his family.

It is not surprising that Sean was among the first in line to enjoy our new exhibition, Rain. The items on display explore Scotland's love-hate relationship with wet weather and highlight how this is woven into our culture, landscape and national identity.

Young Sean idolised weather forecasters instead of pop stars or footballers. Meeting one of his favourites, the BBC's Heather 'the weather' Reid, when he was 13 further fuelled his enthusiasm for meteorology. He had written to the 'Paisley Daily Express' asking to write the newspaper's weather forecast during his school summer holidays.

Impressed, they arranged for him to meet Heather, who was also from the town. The meteorologist was a fixture in Scotland's homes as the BBC's forecaster between 1993 and 2009. She gave up her small screen career to pursue science education and is now a leading voice and advocate for climate awareness.

Sean studied meteorology at the University of Reading before joining the Met Office as a weather observer at an air base in Hampshire. He then moved behind the scenes at ITV before becoming STV's weather presenter in 2007 and Heather's 'sort-of rival'. He now prepares and records 20 forecasts every day.

Scotland's relationship with rain

"Rain is something we love to hate in Scotland," Sean reflects. "We love to moan about it, but it keeps our country so lush and our water supplies topped up. It's influenced a lot of art and literature, like how the big storm adds to the drama of the witches' chase in Burns's 'Tam O'Shanter'." A depiction of that famous scene features in the Rain exhibition. Read more about the exhibition highlights.

For Sean, the most fascinating weather-related artefacts from our collections include Robert Mossman's handwritten rainfall statistics from 1770 to 1894: "I'm a weather geek so I love manual weather records. It's fascinating when you look at old observer books and see comments about strange phenomena never seen at a site before, like when hill walkers first saw glories. They thought, 'is this divine?'." (A glory is a rainbow-like ring of light that sometimes appears around a person's shadow on cloud or mist below them.)

Helping young people understand climate change

Educating children and young people is one of Sean's passion projects. The meteorologist is developing his own Met Academy of resources for teachers and parents. He explained that while we are always learning about the climate crisis and weather patterns, we can clearly see how things are changing.

"The weather is definitely becoming much more volatile," Sean added, "although the extremes we're seeing in Scotland aren't as extreme in other parts of the world, where the weather is having an impact on life and survival."

According to Sean, discussions about climate change in Scotland can be a hard sell because some people see warmer summers and less snow as positive changes. But he warned that such volatile shifts can be incredibly harmful for our farming sector and crops.

He would like to see more incentives to support the switch to renewable energy sources, adding that Scotland had been great at harnessing hydro, wind and solar power. Sean also said we can all help our climate by helping nature. This includes cutting down on the plastic we use and by recycling.

"Plant some window boxes or things in the garden to help wildlife. I'm going to plant some native trees and try to encourage wildlife, with plants that help pollinators." But, he adds, "It's easy for me to say that everyone should switch to an electric car and get solar panels but it's expensive. That cost would be a struggle for many people."

Making rain fun

Sean's Met Academy aims to make learning about the weather and climate fun. The initiative started as a "Mini Met Team" during the Covid lockdowns and grew to include thousands of children from across the UK. They sent Sean daily weather reports and made rain gauges.

He explained, "There are many resources around, but I want to offer teachers and parents things that are Scotland-specific. Our weather is fascinating and the best way to learn about it and climate change is what's happening in our own back gardens. I hope the Met Academy will become a go-to place for weather learning."

Sean is also writing a book about Scotland's climate, covering all 32 local authority areas and featuring regional weather facts and extremes. This follows his 2024 children's book, 'The Worst Christmas Weather EVER!', which introduces children to climate change as they follow Santa's struggle to deliver presents during extreme weather.

"I wanted to introduce to children at a very young age that things are changing," Sean said. "Who better than Santa to tell that story? Children are the governments of the future, so they're the ones we can inspire to make a difference."