This Is Guernsey

Pete Hugo has seen a fair amount of change since joining the Met Office 36 years ago. Nick Mollet talked to the weatherman prior to his recent retirement from the post PETE HUGO may have shared his surname with a hurricane but he spent most of his 36 years at the Guernsey Meteorological Office known as ‘the wind boy’. In 1989 Hurricane Hugo was the most intense one to strike the United States east coast for more than a

century and in terms of size, intensity and destruction, it was a record storm.

Mr Hugo has not had such a devastating effect in the years since he started at the Met Office on 16 March 1970, but he enjoyed an interesting career until his retirement at 60 earlier this month.

‘When I started we were in the old airport terminal building - it had originally been a radio shack and there were problems with rats electrocuting themselves on cables and dying under floorboards,’ he said.

‘In the 70s we were reliant on two teleprinters in the flight clearance office and weather forecasts were dictated over the phone to editorial secretaries at the Guernsey Press.

‘The thing I enjoyed most and missed most was briefing pilots - I felt I was providing a service. We still do today, but we are hidden away now,’ he said.

Amazingly he has been off duty for most of the major weather-related events, disasters and emergencies in and around the island over the last three decades or so.

‘I have missed a lot of the big ones - it was fortunate I was not at work during the hurricane in 1987,’ he said.But he was on duty when the 2,000-tonne Cypriot cargo ship, Prosperity, went down with the loss of all 18 crew members off the west coast during the stormy night of 17 January 1974.

‘I can remember looking at the wind graph and the wind was howling and it was pretty unpleasant. There were seven gusts up to 67 knots, which was the record before the incident, and then we had a gust of 68 knots,’ he said.

‘It was exciting here but it must have been horrendous out at sea.’

He also recounts waking up on Christmas morning 1973 after the Monrovian-registered bulk carrier Elwood Mead, carrying 120,000 tonnes of iron, struck Les Grunes Reef during her maiden voyage.

‘I was due in at 8am on Christmas Day and can remember looking towards the coast from above the Foulon area and it was very hazy.

‘I saw what I thought was a new building on the coast - I realised later it was the superstructure of the ship. Thankfully there were no lives in danger,’ he said.

He also recalled an incident when a Channel Aviation flying school instructor got into difficulties after take-off and needed to get rid of fuel before landing.

‘We were chatting to the pilot and I could not believe how calm he was - my admiration for him was incredible.’

While the demands of the job have changed, the impact of climate change has not been particularly noticeable, he said.Met men became famous for a while after BBC Radio Guernsey launched in 1982. Mr Hugo and his colleagues provided live weather broadcasts twice a day which, he believed, got many people interested in forecasts and the subject.

Nowadays queries tend to involve forecasts for people planning barbecues and police and advocates wanting to know about weather conditions and temperatures at the time of incidents.

‘We have had a good time here and there have been very few staff changes.

‘We enjoy the job and all get on well but when we went single manning, I missed the company.

‘It is a bit impersonal now but our job is still very important and we play our part at night because we are here 24 hours a day and there is a good reason for us being here,’ he said.

Assistance is often provided if there is a need for an emergency charter flight from Alderney during the night.

He may not ever be as famous as Hurricane Hugo, but Pete has certainly played his part in the history of the weather in Guernsey.

Article posted on 30th September, 2006 - 12.00am