HomePoliticsHalf a Century of Predicting the Skies: The Argus Legacy

Half a Century of Predicting the Skies: The Argus Legacy

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As temperatures rise and conditions become milder, we remember the outstanding career of a cherished meteorologist who supplied The Argus with weather predictions for over 50 years.

Each morning following breakfast, regardless of the conditions, Kenneth Woodhams would proceed to the rear garden of the property where he resided for eight decades to gather information from the weather monitoring equipment he constructed himself.

The shelter he built at the family residence on Avondale Road in Hove furnished this publication with figures and information for a full century.

Mr Woodhams passed away in 2015 at the age of 92.

His spouse of 67 years, June, remarked in 2015 that their shared Christian faith had enabled them to remain together through both prosperous and challenging periods.

The couple, who had a daughter named Christine, were introduced through the very individual who guided Ken towards what would develop into a lasting enthusiasm for documenting local weather conditions.

Guy Michel served as the regional television weather presenter during the 1950s and additionally conducted a choir where Ken first met June shortly after his return from military duties, having been posted with the Royal Signals in Italy and North Africa.

June recalled that they were introduced through Guy’s choir. He had no friends in the neighbourhood after being away during wartime, and he accompanied her home that evening. She considered to herself that this could be somebody she might eventually wed.

Ken devoted almost half a century to working as a claims official at Cornell Insurance, while during his leisure hours he compiled monthly documentation of temperatures and precipitation – information that now forms part of official national records – and served as the newspaper’s primary correspondent for meteorological matters.

When substantial overnight rainfalls took place, journalists would reach out to Ken to secure precise measurements – a practice that persisted until 2005.

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