ITV’s first female weather presenter Wincey Willis dies

A trailblazing TV personality who grew up in County Durham and made history as ITV’s first female weather presenter has died aged 76.

Former weather presenter and animal lover Wincey Willis died in December 2024, it has been confirmed, with the news of her death being released this week.

Born Florence Winsome Leighton in Gateshead, Willis grew up in Hartlepool and Barnard Castle after she was adopted.

She wasn’t just a weather presenter. Wincey Willis was the kind of person who brought a bit of warmth into the early-morning gloom and made you genuinely care whether you should take an umbrella or not. Born Florence Winsome Leighton on 8 August 1948 in Gateshead, County Durham, she was adopted by Florence and Thomas Dimmock and grew up in Hartlepool and Barnard Castle. She inherited her nickname from mischievous schoolfriends singing “Incy Wincy Spider,” and it stuck—sparkling, playful, exactly who she was.

She left school at 16—maybe a bit bored of the strictly Baptist home life—and headed off to France, got her baccalauréat, then studied at Strasbourg University. France must’ve felt so refreshing, full of possibilities.

Eventually she came back to the North East in the mid-1970s, took a job at Radio Tees in Stockton-on-Tees in the record library and promos department, and dipped her toes into broadcasting there.

By 1981 she was on Tyne Tees Television. She started as a weather presenter, though she admitted she wasn’t a trained meteorologist—more like an enthusiastic human brought into the studio. A year later she fronted Wincey’s Pets on Granada, inviting viewers into her chaotic, beautiful world of exotic animals. Seems she didn’t just love pets—she lived them. A boa constrictor Esmeralda gave her a smack to the head once during a TV cameo, but that did nothing to quench her spirit.

Then in May 1983, along came Greg Dyke. TV-am was floundering. He brought Wincey into Good Morning Britain, making her ITV’s first-ever female national weather presenter. On screen she was brilliant—bright sweaters, jeans, her cheeky blond mullet, no fuss. Viewers didn’t tune in for pressure systems—they wanted Wincey. She charmed her way into kitchens and living rooms across the UK.

She wasn’t alone—alongside Anne Diamond, Rustie Lee, Lizzie Webb and even Roland Rat, she helped the show topple the BBC’s Breakfast Time in the ratings. She even won Head of the Year in 1986, all thanks to that unforgettable mullet and zesty sense of fun.

During that time she also popped up on Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice as an adjudicator. She chatted with rattling energy, a real human in front of a camera. She wrote a few books, too—It’s Raining Cats and Dogs in 1986 (with an intro by Gerald Durrell!), then Greendays in 1990, sharing both her love of animals and her environmental convictions.

By 1987 Wincey said goodbye to TV-am (contract disagreements, I think) and moved into conservation. She’d spend six months living in a tent in Greece to protect endangered turtles from development. She had that way of signing off where you knew she’d move on to something meaningful.

She still popped back into the spotlight: a wildlife presenter in the early ’90s, then later radio gigs on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire and BBC Hereford & Worcester. She even turned up for Celebrity Eggheads in 2011 and an audience event in Hereford in 2014, plus a last stint on Lorraine in September 2014 for a 30‑year anniversary celebration.

Her personal life felt just like her career—full of colour, trail‑blazing—and authentic. In 1972 she married Malcolm Willis—a bed salesman she met in a nightclub, apparently. They later divorced, but she never stopped loving animals. There were dozens of them at home—including parrots, owls, tortoises, one‑winged birds—all of them seemed to reflect her vibrant, generous spirit.

In 2015, she was diagnosed with fronto‑temporal dementia and gradually withdrew from public life. She returned to the North East—settled in Sunderland—and quietly lived out her remaining years. And then she passed away on either 18 or 19 December 2024, aged 76. The bigger world only learned of her death months later, in June 2025. Tributes poured in—from fans, colleagues and even Russell T Davies, who recalled her as “absolutely hilarious and full of joy, what a lovely woman.”

It’s strange how she could light up screens full of strangers but choose such a quiet, private exit. If you ask me, Wincey Willis left the kind of legacy that lives in moments and laughter. She didn’t just forecast sunshine—she was sunshine, bursting in and warm.