HE has just completed his 60th military tour and still enjoys going to work, whatever the weather.

This month, Ken Horn, 52, an RAF weather forecaster at Brize Norton, marked the military milestone in Afghanistan, as he kept watch for storms from his weather centre in Camp Bastion.

Weather forecasting is vital to the running of the military operation in Afghanistan, from planning flights to telling troops to put on another pair of socks when cold weather hits.

Squadron Leader Horn, from Barlow Close, Wheatley, said: “I enjoy weather forecasting.

“I have been to all these places in the world and I know we are doing something valuable that is appreciated. It’s the knowledge, you know what’s going to happen in the future. It’s a bit like witchcraft.

“We look after the weather for the Helmand Province.

“The weather is quite important out here, for everyone, from pilots to people on the ground. It’s integral to planning and operations. We have lots of exciting weather – the most important to watch out for is dust storms because it stops everything.

“Sometimes you can’t see very far and you can’t go very far.”

Sqd Ldr Horn knew straight away he wanted to predict the weather after he was almost struck by lightning aged seven at his grandparents’ farm in Lanchester, County Durham.

He said: “I was getting the cow in from the field to be milked. It got darker and darker and all of a sudden there was a flash of lightning and it struck the power lines above my head.

“I ran across the field, climbed over a 6ft wall and told my mother I needed to learn about the weather.

“I think it was divine influence.”

Sqd Ldr Horn joined the Met Office as a forecaster in 1975, but soon decided he would rather use his skills on the front line.

In his 19-year career he has served in Bahrain, Kuwait, Italy, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, as well as seven tours of Iraq and 13 tours of Turkey.

When he met up with the Oxford Mail earlier this month, a huge tropical storm had hit the region throwing flights into and out of Helmand Province into disarray.

He said: “We knew the week before there was going to be a tropical storm coming.

“It closed the air route between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Dubai for 48 hours. It was quite unusual, it only happens once or twice a year. It was a very big storm.”

He added: “All the unit have been to Basra and it’s not as hot because you are 3,000ft above sea level in Helmand which is as high as Scafell Pike in the Lake District.

“Basra is only 11ft.

“This is one of my happiest tours, it has been really interesting weather.

“We have lots of thunderstorms and gusts of 61 knots, which is about 70mph, and visibility down to 10 metres. It blew quite a few tents down.”

Meanwhile, air traffic controller Sherryl Walters is not phased by the massive responsibility she faces every day controlling the take-off and landing of about 600 aircraft into and out of Camp Bastion, the UK military base in Afghanistan. Sgt Walters, who is based at RAF Benson, was three weeks into her first tour of Afghanistan when she talked to the Oxford Mail. The Bradford-born former customer services rep, who took eight years to become a fully-fledged air traffic controller, said: “I’m slowly acclimatising, I’m not very good with heat. “It’s hard, long hours, but it’s very good fun. “You don’t really feel the stress because you are constantly talking. “It’s a jigsaw puzzle, you get to be aware of who is where. But I love controlling aircraft, it’s my favourite job I’ve had. It’s a bit more exciting than driving up the A1.” She said: “Apparently we are the busiest airfield next to Gatwick and Heathrow. Three out of four are helicopters. Something uses the runway practically every minute. “It’s very good visibility, apart from the dust storms when you can’t see what’s going on. We have had some phenomenal dust storms and you can’t see anything. The other day the sand came towards us and it was like a scene from The Mummy. “The planes are coming from all over, Muskat, Khandahar, Pakistan, UAE, a lot of it is cargo coming round for the re-supply for the patrol bases. It can be vehicles, tanks, personnel and civilians, mail and food. “We also have the Russian helicopters coming in. The language barrier is probably the hardest thing we deal with. We have to slow down when we speak and put things in very plain English.”