A Career in Meteorology

Camden Richardson

Mr. Alburger

English III Honors

10/31/18
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Camden Richardson

Mr. Alburger

English III Honors

10/31/18

Meteorology

The storm outside rage on as the trees in the front yard smack against the side of the

house. Marissa sits on her couch clutching her phone waiting for a call from her mother. It

seemed as if the thunder grew louder with each passing second. Bang! A loud item hits the side

of her house, Marissa jumps and runs to the closest to grab the radio. The lights flicker above her

and then, darkness. She opens up her phone and turns on the flashlight to brighten up the

hallway in front of her, she panics and turns on the radio unsure what to do as a deep rumbling

begins to approach her house. Marissa uses the slider to try and find the weather station when a

loud blaring siren erupts from outside. Her legs give out from underneath her and she falls to the

floor, Covering her eyes with her hands just waiting for what terrible disaster comes next when a

male voice appears over the radio. The sound of his voice almost brought a sense of calmness to

Marissa. He says “A tornado is heading for the downtown area anyone in that area please take

precautions, go to the middle of your house, a closet or bathroom-” Marissa jumps into the closet

next to her, grabbing the radio and her phone. “-Just sit tight I know you can get through this.”

Marissa waited as the sound of the loud rumbling seemed to fade in the other direction. Marissa

felt safe. That man over the radio works as a Meteorologist, The field of meteorology is full of
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many different paths, from the crazy storm chaser to the man who works for an airport, the

science behind meteorology is a large and grand one.

Meteorology has been around for a long time, from the beginning when it was mostly

guesswork, nobody considered it an exact science. People would observe the sky in the morning

and if it were red it normally meant bad weather. (Lyons, pp. 42-45) The study of weather has

evolved since the times of the ancients though, it kept evolving. Like in China in 300 BCE,

Astronomers were able to produce a calendar to predict the weather. At the same time the Greek

philosopher Aristotle wrote Meteorologica a book that included theories of the sky and what he

observed back then.(Lyons, pp. 42-45). The study of the atmosphere, the ability to predict the

formation and movement of the clouds, storms, and the sun. A science was disruption of the

atmosphere is non-existent. Where measurements and theories are brought about at a distance

and from the ground. “The world is an ever-changing picture of naturally occurring events. From

drought and famine to devastating floods, some of the greatest challenges we face come from

natural disasters created by weather. Yet, dealing with weather and climate is an inevitable part

of our lives” (Ahrens, pp. XV) Weather is something that can come off as unavoidable, an

essential part of life that impacts the world every day. A Meteorologists Job entails studying this,

predicting this, and warning the public of the coming disaster or of the beautiful day the public

gets to walk into.

Hurricanes can be one of the hardest natural disasters to predict. They start in the middle

of the ocean and grow stronger and stronger until they make landfall, they kill and destroy the

homes and lives of the people living in the places they destroy. This year two major hurricanes

made landfall on the east coast Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael. Both storms dropping
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record-breaking landfall and decimating the coastal cities of both North and South Carolina.

While Meteorologists jumped on both those storms with The Weather Channel reporting this

storm every hour of the day and every day until it came but, these storms proved that nobody is

really sure of were a hurricane is going to make landfall until it does. Like Hurricane Matthew

for example. A Hurricane event where meteorologists failed to correctly predict where the most

severe areas would be. The professionals predicted that the storm would impact the coast of

South Carolina and then curve back towards Florida (“Hurricane”) but when the storm took an

unexpected path hitting North Carolina and Virginia completely missing its original target, The

main problem being a model popped up before the storm actually hit. A model that predicted it

would go north instead of south. What did the meteorologists do? Completely ignore it and

assume that the model is untrustworthy. So an unexpecting North Carolina and Virginia got

pummeled by a raging hurricane. (“Hurricane”) Why is that a problem? While all eyes are

focused on the “top wind speeds” and “Hurricane Category” that torrential rain and storm surges

are completely missed and ignored. Blaming the ones reporting the issue makes sense right.

Well, half of it can be blamed on the reporting skills of the Meteorologists in charge but, the

unpredictability of the earth and its weather also played a major factor. A Meteorologist must

learn how to deal with this unpredictability, Many schools offer meteorology as a full major of

its own, though others will call it Atmospheric Science though nothing different between the two

When signing up for the meteorology major know that it is heavily math intensive.

According to Justin Condry; a student at the University of North Carolina Asheville who is

studying to be a Weather Forecaster says “I would say that the major is very much based in

math. Science does come into the major using physics often and chemistry sometimes. But math
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plays a major role in meteorology. For our major, we have to have Calculus I, II, III, and

Differential Equations.” Justin is taking Atmospheric Science, There is no difference between

them. The major is completely filled with the study of the atmosphere. It may seem like when

signing up for the major that there is only one path to take. But according to Justin, there are

many routes you can take. When passing sophomore year the choice becomes more apparent on

what to focus on, what to dive deep into. He says that it all depends on the classes taken. One can

go into weather analysis, computer applications, thermodynamics, kinetics, and dynamics, or

synoptic but that's not even all of it. The electives include tropical meteorology, mesoscale

meteorology, radar, and satellite meteorology. So going for an Atmospheric Science degree

won’t be any different than going for a Meteorology degree, but that's only an example at one

school. Some of the biggest schools in the country for meteorology are Ohio State, Oklahoma

State, and the University of North Carolina. Now, with a Meteorology degree, one may assume

that only one path is available, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Jobs available to Meteorologists are not hard to come by, not just being the ones on

television though that is one of the most popular ones. Including but not limited to an

Operational Forecaster, someone who analyzes weather conditions and issues alerts for severe

weather. A Research Meteorologists, who studies climate change and more focused research.

The military is always looking for meteorologists to help schedule missions around the world. A

newly graduated Meteorologist could even go and work in the private sector, work for businesses

that have a need for Meteorologists.

One of the coolest jobs one can go into is called Storm Chasing. It's quite simple actually.

A storm chaser goes around the country following promising fronts and see if they evolve into a
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supercell. People have been chasing tornadoes for a very long time for many different reasons.

Most are scientific researchers looking to learn more about Tornados and how they work (Miller,

pp8) Living a life of uncertainty is something a storm chaser must undertake when joining the

life. Some even join the air force to become apart of the Air Force Reserve 53rd Weather

Reconnaissance Squadron or better known as The Hurricane Hunters whose job it is to go and fly

into the eye of storm and above the storm and tell the weather stations what its intensity is and

how the storm actually looks taking photographs and videos of the major storm (Miller, pp11).

Another big job for Meteorologists is working for an airline. Most airports around the

country are looking for meteorologists. It's a meteorologists decision on whether the plane is

delayed, takes off, or completely canceled. A fun fact being that American was one of the first

airlines in the country to cancel flights due to bad weather (Williams, pp.13) Airlines need

meteorologists to stop catastrophes from happening, From snow to ice to torrential rain, anything

can happen. Recently though the focus on airline meteorology has shifted from just predicting

the weather to helping airlines solve complicated weather problems for the least costs

(Williams, pp.13). Like figuring out ways to help airplanes become more resilient to weather and

how to stop planes from icing over in cold weather. That's the job of an airline meteorologist.

One of the most popular paths taken by most fresh out of college is that of reporting on air to the

people around you

A broadcast meteorologist is a path taken by most who leave with a degree in

Atmospheric science. Other than working for the NOAA and Accuweather most aim for this

trail. A Broadcast Meteorologist starts their journey towards the job by getting a degree in both

Meteorology and Theatre because one has to have a good on-air personality. Once out of college
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a on-air meteorologist can expect early mornings every weekday. Carrie Rose a Meteorologist

for Richmond's CBS station wakes up at 1 am every weekday and prepares for work at 3:30 am

to get the forecasts ready, she has to look at satellite and radar data to make her own weather

predictions (Carrie) A day can end between the times of 10 am and 12 am depends on the station

working at. A Broadcast Meteorologist isn’t just someone who stands on the tv screen pointing at

a green screen they are someone who has to have excelled at Physics and Math and know their

way around the science of the weather without making a fool of themselves on air. In college, the

average course requirement consists of many different classes along with the major science and

math classes one can be expected to take, two English classes, Philosophy of Religion, and 3

hours of Social Science (Broadcast). Broadcast Meteorology is one of the most popular decisions

to go into and its well deserved. It takes guts to go into this field and a lot of faith in your

position. As the world switches from Television and radio to the smaller supercomputer one

carries in their hand every day. Thanking the meteorologist community for the development of

the smartphone would be well advised because without it the smartphone might not be as along

as it is now.
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Works Cited

Ahrens, Donald C. Meteorology Today, An Introduction to Weather, Climate, and The

Environment. 10th ed. Print.

“Broadcast Meteorology Degree Program.” UIW: University of Incarnate Words, University of

Incarnate Words, 23 Aug. 2011,

www.uiw.edu/smse/atmossciencephysics/meteorology/brcdcrs.html.

Condry, Justin. Personal Interview, Nov 8th 2018

<​https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HoqFjuF3yYOqCAsu_5CjPaX39XD-R8LtE9H2

Y3YfK0c/edit?usp=sharing​>

Carrie, Rose. “Wild Weather Jobs: Broadcast Meteorologist.” SciJinks,

scijinks.gov/meteorologist/.
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"Hurricane Matthew shows how forecasting along a storm's edge is meteorology's biggest

problem." Washingtonpost.com, 11 Oct. 2016. Student Resources In Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A466263898/SUIC?u=ncowl&sid=SUIC&xid=0a

7f2e34. Accessed 4 Oct. 2018.

Lyons, Chuck. “The History of Weather Forecasting.” History Magazine, 1 Oct. 2014, pp.

42–45.​http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=98743096

&site=eds-live&scope=site

Miller, Ron. Chasing the Storm: Tornadoes, Meteorology, and Weather Watching. Twenty-First

Century Books, 2014.

<​http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e860xna&AN=679615&site=e

ds-live&scope=site​>

Williams, Jack. “How Meteorologists Help Airlines Beat the Weather Odds.” Weatherwise,

July 2015,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=103415468&site=eds-liv

e&scope=site.
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