Penny Tranter was a BBC Weatherweather presenter from 1992 to 2008. She was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland and first became interested in the weather as a small child, after living through the Great Glasgow Storm of 1968. A few years later, after a family move to England, her interest intensified and, after attending South Wilts Grammar School in Salisbury, went on to obtain a BSc in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia in 1982. She joined the Met Office in 1983 as a graduate trainee weather forecaster. Penny worked as a forecaster across the UK at the Norwich, Glasgow and Southampton Weather Centres before transferring to the Commercial division in 1990. In 1992 Penny joined the team at the BBC Weather Centre, as a broadcast meteorologist, making her first television appearance on 7 November of that year. She appeared regularly on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC News 24, BBC World, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 and Radio Five Live. Penny was also involved in Children in Need over three years with fellow BBC weather presenters dancing the 'Can Can', 'It's Raining Men' and 'The Time Warp' from the Rocky Horror Show. As part of a BBC Weather Centre team, she also enjoyed running half marathons, completing several Great North Runs, until her knees 'said no more'. Penny left the BBC Weather Centre in January 2008 to become the Meteorology Training Manager at the Met Office College in Exeter, where she worked until 2011. While in the role, she oversaw an expansion of the College, leading to an increase in both student numbers and weather and climate change training, Penny is now a Met Office Advisor working with emergency responders and planners, specialising in severe weather. She is based in SW England, and remembers vividly the severe winter of 2013/14, when she worked closely with the emergency community involved in the response and recovery of the Somerset Levels flooding. Sailing is a lifelong hobby, and during London 2012 she was able to combine this passion with her weather forecasting skills. Penny was a member of the successful Met Office forecasting team for the sailing events in Weymouth for the Olympics and Paralympics. Since then, Penny has presented the weather brief for the 2015 and 2017 Fastnet Races to the competing yachtsmen and yachtswomen taking part in this iconic sailing challenge. Penny is a Chartered Meteorologist, member of the Royal Meteorological Society and a STEM ambassador for the Met Office. She often gives talks and presentations on weather, specialising in sailing weather and weather forecasting. She lives with her husband Martyn near Bath. They have two children, Ieuan and Isabelle. Her hobbies include sailing, power boating, swimming, walking, film and theatre. Penny also enjoys watching rugby - a keen supporter of Bath at the Rec - and has no trouble supporting Scotland in the Six Nations, as she is proud of her Scottish ancestry.
