Laura Paterson, 31, is the chief meteorologist at the Met Office, the first woman in the role. She lives in Exeter with her boyfriend.

My alarm goes off…

It depends, but when I’m on a day shift I get up at about 5.40am for a 6.30am start. I drive to work, usually just having a coffee and some fruit at my desk because it’s so early. If I’m doing a night shift, I start at 6.30pm in the evening, so I get up much later on those days.

I’m responsible for…

Issuing severe national weather warnings and leading all Met Office meteorologists in the application of weather science. There are anywhere between 20 and 50 meteorologists working at any one time at the Met Office, and my job is to lead all of them in providing accurate weather forecasts. It can be really high pressure when the weather is severe, and you know that if you name a storm, within an hour it’s going to be the top trending news item in the country. There’s also an inevitable uncertainty in weather forecasting, so it’s all about making judgements about the most appropriate message to get out to the public.

I got my job…

After studying physics and meteorology at Edinburgh University. I didn’t realise what it was that I really wanted to do, so I almost just fell into it. Once I did join the Met Office, though, there was so much training I could do, and I realised the huge opportunities I had working there. Once I realised how exciting it was, I took every opportunity I could get.

What it’s really like to name storms for a living