Weather presenter Sean Batty’s new book equips kids with the simple facts about climate change

He has taken the same route round the world every Christmas Eve for centuries, so who better to chart the effects of climate change than Santa Claus?

That is the reasoning of self-confessed big kid Sean Batty, the popular STV weather presenter, who has combined his love of Christmas and meteorology to write his first children’s book.

And what Santa sees in The Worst Christmas Weather Ever is likely to make him say ‘Oh oh oh’, rather than ‘Ho ho ho’.

‘It’s fun but will make them think’

Sean said: “Weather and climate are such huge topics now and schools are desperate for learning resources. When I was thinking of how to teach it to young kids, Santa seemed obvious because he’s travelled the world for hundreds of years and he’s the one person who has seen climate change firsthand.

“Every weather event Santa encounters in the book – Japan’s worst snow, heavy forest fires in Australia, extreme warmth in the Highlands – have all happened. Climate change doesn’t need any embellishment. I’ve not done it in a frightening or scary way; it’s a fun story for kids but it will make them think.

“I’ve been visiting schools giving talks and when Santa asks in the book who has the power to change the weather, the kids point to me. I wish I could! Then they ask if it’s Santa, but I tell them they have the power. Children are the superheroes of the book. Through a Christmas story it’s easy to get a message out there.”

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Sean has been delivering weather news for more than 20 years – for the past 17 years on STV and before that at BBC, ITV and the Met Office. He was seven when he became passionate about weather, and now he hopes to motivate the next generation of kids.

“I had a primary school teacher who was into the environment and recycling, and I knew from then I wanted to work in weather,” he explained. “When I was seven, I was given a BBC Weather presenting kit – a rain gauge, anemometer, a weather map with stick-on symbols – and I’m 42 now and I still have it! I hope I can inspire other people to follow that path.

“In the early weeks of the Covid lockdown, I put together educational packs about weather and the climate for parents who were homeschooling, and then I started the Mini Met Team, where kids sent in daily weather observation videos and I would show them on STV each night. I felt a void when that ended, so I decided to write the book.”

Volatile climate

During his time on STV, Sean has reported on some of Scotland’s most memorable weather extremes – from the Beast from the East snowstorm in 2018 and July 2022’s stifling heatwave to the 165mph winds of Hurricane Bawbag in 2011 and the severe flooding of Storm Frank in 2015 – and he says our climate will continue to be increasingly volatile.

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“When I first started, it was always exciting when we thought we were going to break a weather record, but now we’re seeing records break every year. In the book, Santa experiences unusual warmth in the north Highlands. That’s based on a new record that was set there in December 2019, with temperatures of 19 degrees recorded.

“It was down to a weather phenomenon called the Foehn Effect, where thanks to certain wind directions, anomalies occur where valleys get really warm. It’s found in places like the Rockies or Alps, but it shouldn’t be happening here. Also, in January this year, the same place reached 20 degrees. You don’t need to be a weather expert to know that’s just not right.

“A few years ago in Renfrewshire, we had our earliest snowfall – a few days after Halloween – in 40 or 50 years. Just last month we had heavy snowfall across Central Scotland on the Saturday, yet in the early hours of Sunday morning the temperature at Glasgow Airport was 15 degrees.”

White Christmas?

The wild fluctuation in temperature makes the traditional white Christmas scene more unlikely going forward, although it’s not out of the question.

“The trend is moving away from snowfall because the climate is warming but there’s an argument that, as the climate warms, moisture is held in the air, and so when it does snow, that snowfall is heavier than it used to be.

“I used to joke that Scotland was one of the few countries that could be 15 degrees on both the winter and summer solstices, but now we are getting big ups and downs that you would expect in places with a large land mass like Canada and Russia.”

Sean says he has further educational tools in the planning and also hopes to write more children’s books. And while the current outlook might appear grim, he said an environment event from his youth does produce hope.

“When we were younger, it was all about the ozone layer and how it was depleting. That has started to repair itself and we can do so with climate change. It won’t reverse overnight, but hopefully we can slow it, and in the future reverse it.”

Sean’s book, illustrated by Ukrainian artist Anastasia Khmelevska, is available from Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith and seanbatty.co.uk.

He will be at Glasgow’s George Square market today, Blair Drummond in Stirling on Friday, Edinburgh Christmas market next Saturday and Sunday, and Aberdeen Christmas market on December 20 and 22