WORLD-RENOWNED amateur weather forecaster Bill Foggitt has died in hospital at the age of 91.

Mr Foggitt's unconventional methods - using signs in nature rather than science for his predictions - made him the scourge of professionals, but a legend among the masses.

One of the high points of his career came when the Association of Science Education used Mr Foggitt's "sensing" methods in a textbook for the national curriculum.

He had long argued that plants, animals and insects provided a much better guide to short-term local climate changes than technology.

Throughout the winter of 1968-69, he astouned experts with broadly accurate week-by-week forecasts.

In summer 1985, Mr Foggitt achieved a higher accuracy - 88 per cent - of daily forecasts than two professional weathermen, including Michael Fish, who scored 74 per cent.

Mr Foggitt, from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, had been a local legend for some time, but achieved international fame by out-forecasting Mr Fish.

During a cold winter snap, the Met Office warned of a prolonged cold spell, but Mr Foggitt had witnessed a mole poking its head through the snow and dismissed the prediction. He was proved right.

Journalists from around the world headed for Thirsk to hear how the forecaster used trees, pine cones and climate records kept by his family for more than 200 years.

His biographer, Mike Cresswell, said: "He taught us that for all the scientific advances, the everyday behaviour of nature remains one of the best guides to predicting the weather."

Mr Foggitt, a widower, had originally wanted to be a priest, but became a teacher.

He tried his hand at a range of jobs, including a storeman at an ammunitions depot, and saw war service with the Ordnance Corps.

Mr Foggitt became a Methodist lay preacher after failing his studies at a Church of England college, but returned to Thirsk after being knocked down by a car.

During his convalescence, he began studying the family's weather records - started by his great-grandfather to help understand flooding problems in Yarm, Teesside - and became fascinated.

Tyne Tees Television weatherman Bob Johnson said: "I loved the background to Bill Foggitt's methods. His records were vast and contained just about everything.

"He recorded the arrival of the first swallow, when the first swallow left, whether the frogspawn was in the middle of the pond or at the edge. And he didn't get it any more wrong than professionals."