“Management was a natural extension of my love of science”

Meteorologist Steff Gaulter CMgr MCMI always loved science. “I liked the simplicity and that everything follows maths. So, if you threw a ball, you could figure out where it was going to land.” 

Through this love of science, Steff stumbled onto the subject of weather and weather presenting. “I loved the fact that everybody’s interested in it, that everybody talks about it and that there’s a lot of in-depth knowledge that you could go into,” she says. 

Though the science is difficult, she loved the idea of communicating it in a more simplistic way so that people can understand it and know how they can apply it to their everyday lives. Her love of science grew into a love of weather – and people.

“It’s not just weather on its own,” says Steff. “It’s how weather affects people, how people are impacted by the weather. For example, when there’s a heatwave, it’s all people talk about.”

Recreating herself

After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in natural science, Steff joined the Met Office as a forecaster, then moved to the BBC and Sky. Then she was offered the opportunity to set up a weather department for Al Jazeera English in the Middle East.

“I knew nothing about Qatar, or about Doha. I turned up two weeks before we launched and I had to get this weather department up and running.” 

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At the time, this department was Steff and a graphic system that no one knew how to use. Getting it up and running in two weeks was a mammoth task, she says. “Coordinating with all the different departments who had their own deadlines to work towards was challenging. But bringing other people into the department and managing that for many years was just wonderful.” 

She was there for almost 13 years in total, before moving back to England in 2019 to spend more time with her father and to send her kids to school in the UK. 

“Doha is a wonderful place. It has lots of opportunities and all the schools are wonderful, but it’s very transient and I didn’t want my son to have teachers leaving halfway through terms,” she says. “That’s probably the biggest sacrifice I’ve made for my children.”