Having done the "full" Met observers course I would like to concur at the difficulty of the job as a "secondary duty". It is made even harder when in a tower like ours, you can't get outside to view the cloud, or even to tell if its raining...that sounds silly but it IS really difficult to tell if it is raining or not when you are 50m in the air with no way of getting outside, we quite often resort to asking a vehicle or looking to see if cars on the roads have got wipers on!!
Spittoon,
Non NATS airports may have their own Met observing staff, but I think they have all done the "full" course; which really only scratches the surfaces; how NATS' ATCAs are going to manage on an 18 hour CBT I don't know...that is meant with no disrespect to the ATCA's-I know from experience how busy they are particularly at LHR- not mention what would happen a FLOP occurs!!!!