Born in Stockport, he moved with his family to Cookridge in Leeds at an early age and was educated at what was then Leeds Modern School. A keen sportsman and most able cricketer, he had a lifelong interest in the Old Modernian's Cricket Club, of which he was an honorary vice-president.

He joined the Meteorological Office in 1950, serving in that capacity in the RAF during his National Service, and in 1956 was selected for a Royal Society Expedition to Antarctica as part of the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58.

The new base was at Halley Bay on the Weddell Sea and was home for two years to 21 scientists and technicians. Here Jim spent the time compiling pioneering meteorological data, returning to the UK in early 1959, where he worked for some months at the Royal Society on that work. Members of the expedition were awarded the Polar Medal by the Queen in 1961.

It was in London that he met his future wife, Dawn, who was visiting from Australia. After they married in London in 1960, Jim was based at the experimental RAF station at Boscombe Down near Salisbury, before moving out to Australia where he continued to develop his meteorological interests.

The family returned to England in 1970, Jim working at the Met Office at Heathrow. He was not able to return to his beloved Yorkshire until the new weather centre opened in Leeds in 1984.

Jim always took delight in the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales and was a tireless advocate for the countryside. He was a former regional chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), a vice-chairman of the Yorkshire Dales Society and a member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority from 1992 to 2000.

In 2004 Jim was awarded an MBE for his services to the countryside in Yorkshire, and he was also given the Countryside Medal by the CPRE.

Jim's enthusiasm for sport never dwindled. He enjoyed the countryside as an orienteer and chaired regional orienteering in Yorkshire and Humberside and the English Orienteering Council. He also completed an early London Marathon for charity.

He achieved his degree as one of the first intake to the Open University and went on to complete his doctorate in the history of science. He was a member of the Royal Meteorological Society and much involved with its specialist group in the history of meteorology.

Jim was a tolerant and public-spirited man with a contagious optimism that energised those around him.

He leaves his wife, Dawn, and two sons, Michael and Tony, one an astrophysicist in Australia and the other much involved with the National Trust.