Before we dive in, a tiny correction that will help your readers (and your SEO): the BBC weather presenter you’re looking for is Tomasz Schafernaker (often miss-spelled online as “Thomas Schafenacker”). He’s a Polish-British meteorologist best known for presenting the weather across the BBC. This article gathers what’s publicly documented from reputable sources and flags what isn’t reliably available so you don’t have to lean on guesswork.
Early life
Tomasz Schafernaker was born 8 January 1979 in Gdańsk, Poland. He split his schooling between Poland and the UK, attending St John’s College, Southsea (Portsmouth) for A-levels in maths, physics and art, then earned a BSc (Hons) in Meteorology from the University of Reading. These foundational details are noted in his BBC profile and other reliable biographical summaries.
Meteorology, from training to the BBC
After university, he trained with the Met Office, then joined the BBC Weather Centre in 2000 as a broadcast assistant. Within a year he was on air—at the time the youngest male to present regional BBC Weather forecasts. Over the winter of 2003 he presented internationally on BBC World, and later deepened his technical training at the Met Office College in Exeter (2004–2005), including aviation-forecasting work at RAF Lyneham. These steps map how he blended on-camera skill with formal forecasting credentials.
A familiar face across BBC outlets
Across the 2000s and 2010s, Schafernaker’s on-air roles ranged from BBC regional forecasts to the BBC News Channel, plus regular shifts for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live. He returned to national BBC broadcasts in January 2013 and has been a mainstay on BBC platforms ever since, often fronting the news channel forecasts and radio slots that knit the network together across the day.
Awards and poll wins
In 2010, he received Best TV Weather Presenter at the TRIC Awards—industry recognition that mirrored his growing popularity with viewers. Later, a Radio Times public poll named him the UK’s favourite weather presenter in May 2017, cementing his status as a household name. Both the industry accolade and the audience poll are well documented by the BBC and respected outlets.
The viral moments (and why they stuck)
Like many presenters who spend thousands of hours live on air, he’s had a few viral clips. The best-known is the 2010 “finger” blooper—a momentary, jokey gesture caught on camera after anchor Simon McCoy teased the forecast. The BBC apologised at the time; the clip lives on in news write-ups and YouTube compilations and is still referenced in profiles years later because, frankly, it was a very “live TV” moment.
Another oft-shared moment: he had to pause a Radio 4 shipping forecast after suddenly feeling ill (he recovered). It’s remembered not because it was scandalous, but because it showed the unscripted side of live broadcasting—human, fallible, and oddly endearing.
Art, beyond the weather maps
Off-air, art isn’t a hobby so much as a parallel creative track. Schafernaker runs official art platforms where he presents his work and his story as a self-taught artist alongside his BBC career, with the University of Reading degree and Met Office training as the scientific backbone of his day job. His art practice includes landscapes, portraits, and weather-inspired scenes that long-time viewers will recognise as “him” in a different medium.
Lifestyle snapshots
What’s fair to say, using on-record sources? He’s based in west London; fitness and the gym come up regularly in profiles; and yes, the hair that grew out during lockdown became a mini talking point—complete with a Telegraph Q&A about the attention it drew. These are the little, human details audiences latch onto with familiar broadcasters.
Cooking on TV
If you’ve seen him outside the weather, it might have been on Celebrity MasterChef (2019), where he joined the season’s line-up. That appearance broadened his public persona beyond meteorology and gave audiences a glimpse of him in a competitive, creative environment many UK viewers follow closely.
About the “partner” question
Here’s the bit most people click for when they search “who is Thomas Schafenacker partner” (miss-spelling included): there is no publicly confirmed partner. Schafernaker is known to keep his private life private. Authoritative, primary sources don’t name a partner, and profiles over the years have instead focused on his career, art and day-to-day life rather than relationships. One reliable indicator of how guarded he is: profiles have noted he lives on his own in west London and emphasise hobbies rather than relationship status. That’s where solid sourcing ends—and where speculation begins—so it’s best not to go further without verifiable documentation.
If you’re writing for readers who arrive with that exact query, the most honest, reader-respecting way to frame it is: he hasn’t publicly announced a partner and credible sources don’t list one. Anything beyond that tends to come from low-quality gossip pages that recycle each other’s claims.
What we don’t know (and shouldn’t guess)
A quick checklist for your editorial standards page:
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Height: Numbers are scattered around listicle sites, but no reputable primary source confirms his height.
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Siblings and extended family: Not covered in authoritative sources.
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Net worth: Those numbers come from ad-supported estimate sites; they aren’t reliable.
For a profile that aims to feel human and trustworthy, noting the absence of reliable data is just as important as including what’s verified.
Why he resonates with viewers
Part of Schafernaker’s appeal is that he feels both expert and approachable. The expert side is easy to document: a meteorology degree, formal Met Office training, and a long track record delivering forecasts across BBC outlets. The approachable side is the combination of the occasional live-TV gaffe, plenty of humour about it later, visible fitness and artistic pursuits, and an on-screen tone that reads as upbeat rather than austere. The TRIC award and the Radio Times poll are two separate signals—industry and public—that this mix works.
Attitude cover and public image
In January 2010, he appeared on the cover of Attitude Active, photographed in gym shorts—an image that exploded beyond the usual weather-nerd circles and became part of his public iconography. Attitude revisited him with a 2017 feature, and mainstream outlets still reference that cover when sketching his career highlights and pop-culture moments.
Work rhythms and range
The nuts-and-bolts of his job rarely make headlines—but they’re what viewers rely on. Schafernaker’s routine includes studio forecasts and occasional live pieces, and his experience spans TV and radio. The BBC’s long-running reshuffles of forecasting suppliers and graphics over the past decade have not dislodged him; he remains one of the faces audiences expect to see when they check the weather at breakfast or before bed.
Home base and day-to-day
Profiles and the BBC’s own biographical note have placed him in west London, with interests in jogging, the gym, painting, and frequent trips back to Gdańsk. These are modest, grounded details, but they’re the kind that give a profile warmth without overreaching into guesswork.
A careful word on sources
Much of the internet chatter about “who he’s dating” traces to aggregation sites that cite each other rather than original reporting. When you’re writing for readers who arrive with the exact phrase “who is Thomas Schafenacker partner”, it’s tempting to satisfy the curiosity with a tidy answer. The more responsible approach is to quote and rely only on primary or high-quality secondary sources:
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BBC profiles for career and education.
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Radio Times for the 2017 poll and MasterChef line-up.
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The Guardian for context on his popularity and media moments.
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His own art sites for his creative work and biography.
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Established press reporting of the 2010 blooper.
If a detail isn’t in those lanes, it’s probably not something you want to pin your article on.
Closing
Tomasz Schafernaker is one of those broadcasters who feels larger than his job title—meticulous forecaster, occasional viral star, and working artist whose off-air life is strikingly normal by design. If your readers arrive asking “who is Thomas Schafenacker partner”, the most valuable answer you can offer is a clear, sourced profile that celebrates what’s on the record and draws a respectful boundary around what isn’t. That’s the kind of post that gets bookmarked—and trusted.
