During the Persian Gulf War, the final thrust of the 101st Airborne Division--the Screaming Eagles--to the Euphrates River Valley was stalled at its forward operating base in Iraq because of poor weather. Additional forces to be used in a helicopter leapfrogging maneuver were holding in Saudi Arabia. The Staff Weather Officer for the 101st, Air Force Captain Michael H. McDonald, had forewarned the Screaming Eagles that conditions would be unfavorable for their assault. Further, predictions for the next morning, Tuesday, indicated that winds would be in excess of 30 knots, thus precluding helicopter operations then, too. But, McDonald said, there would be a window of opportunity Tuesday afternoon and evening. The trick would be to get the choppers and their troops into the Euphrates Valley before fog formed early Wednesday.
"What time will it form?" a very impatient commanding general demanded to know. McDonald, bleary-eyed from 72 hours without sleep, answered with a response falling into the "no guts, no glory" category, "Oh-three-hundred, sir." Three o'clock in the morning.
The mission successfully launched Tuesday evening. The 101st Airborne Division consolidated its position a scant 150 miles from Baghdad. At 3:30 Wednesday morning a blanket of fog fanned out over the Euphrates. "Must have been some divine intervention," marveled McDonald.
Weather forecasting is certainly the most recognizable applied meteorology endeavor. Career opportunities in forecasting exist in four major areas: public, military, private sector (industrial/commercial), and aviation. From military applications, such as the high-drama situation related in the preceding anecdote, to peacetime NWS public forecasts, there is a wide spectrum of products. Public forecasts, including weather watches and warnings, are the most familiar entity; military forecasts are less so. Much military forecasting centers around flight and airborne operations, but ground actions, particularly for the army, require support also. (All army weather support is supplied by air force meteorologists.) Naval meteorology and oceanography covers an expansive array of operations ranging from underwater ventures to naval and Marine aviation. And for all military branches, beyond the traditional air, sea, and land exercises, there is the hush-hush, highly classified work known as special operations. Special operations frequently require weather support for exploits deep in enemy territory. Forecast challenges often are at the micro- and mesoscale levels.
While weather forecasting is exciting and demanding, it typically is not a Monday through Friday nine-to-five job. It is a profession that requires around-the-clock attention. That means shift work: weekends, holidays, nights, evenings, early mornings--times when most other folks are relaxing or sleeping. Shift work can be challenging to your social and/or family life. Sometimes your passion for meteorology will overcome these lifestyle drawbacks, sometimes it won't. The important thing, though, is to acknowledge the drawbacks and deal with them, perhaps turning them to your advantage. For instance, consider not having to deal with rush hour traffic, or having, at midweek, a mall or golf course to yourself.
Other than the NWS, the most prolific producers of forecast products are private-sector weather service companies that provide detailed, tailored weather predictions to a myriad of users. These users, to name just a few, include electric and gas utilities, farmers and ranchers, ocean shipping firms and port operators, and highway departments. Forecasting for utilities includes support for operations such as load management and dispatching, fuel allocation and distribution, line maintenance, and severe weather preparation. Agricultural meteorology deals with crops: planting, harvesting, irrigation, fertilizing, spraying and dusting, frost protection, and yield prediction. For ranchers, warnings of severe weather conditions that may affect livestock are issued. In the realm of ocean shipping, minimum-time routes (or safest routes) are provided, as well as predictions of ocean conditions and sea ice. Port forecasting helps with work scheduling and cancellation. Highway departments (state, county, and municipal) use forecasts to prepare for snow removal, flooding, and cleanup in the wake of severe weather.
Weather forecasting includes aviation meteorology. A number of larger airlines, both passenger and cargo haulers, have their own meteorology departments. But a lot of aviation forecasting is done by the NWS and commercial weather firms. Services provided range from terminal and en route forecasts to automated, computer-generated flight plans. Weather forecasting and observing at a few air force bases also is carried out by commercial companies on a contract basis.
Another area of applied meteorology is consulting. Under its broad banner can fall almost any type of meteorological service provided to a client. But, over time, the term has come to be used primarily with specialized environmental services, especially those dealing with air quality; the development of an support for meteorological software and weather information systems; and forensic meteorology.
Air quality meteorology covers a broad range of technical areas including environmental assessments and permitting, dispersion modeling to determine pollutant concentrations, risk assessments, ambient monitoring, and specialized studies such as photochemical modeling, acid rain, and global warming. Environmental assessments, permitting, dispersion modeling, and ambient monitoring are often conducted for industries--potential polluters--that wish to build new plants, expand existing ones, or address citizen concerns about pollutant impacts. Keep in mind that this type of career requires knowledge and application of federal and state environmental laws. While legal training is not required to conduct air quality analyses, having a flare for "legalese" certainly helps.
Ambient monitoring involves the measurement of air pollutant and meteorological parameters. Ambient monitoring networks are maintained primary under the control and funding of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state environmental agencies. Some environmental organizations, however, such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, maintain their own monitoring networks in environmentally sensitive areas. Specialized work in air quality is more commonly conducted by government agencies and research laboratories, universities, and a few private-sector consulting firms.
Work with software and information systems is pretty much what you would expect it to be: the development of meteorological software applications and the systems that use those applications, as well as maintenance of the same. Jobs can be as limited as keeping one or two PCs and their software up and running, or as massive as developing an entire automated weather data processing system and its associated network.
Forensic meteorology is perhaps one of the more fascinating aspects of atmospheric science, as it addresses the application of meteorological expertise to legal matters and police investigations. Forensic cases may range from the relatively routine--people slipping on ice and breaking bones--to headline-making events such as homicides and horrific chain-reaction vehicle crashes. Consider, for example, the Massachusetts forensic meteorologist who testified, based on knowledge of winds and ocean currents, as to where a body dumped in Boston Harbor might end up. And then there was the incident on Interstate 75 in Tennessee. Just north of the Georgia border the highway crosses the Hiwassee River. Between 1978 and 1990 at least eight fatal automobile accidents occurred there due to a serious fog problem. The worst of the crashes came on December 11, 1990, when--within seven minutes--99 cars and trucks smashed into one another. Twelve people were killed and 42 injured in one of the nation's worst traffic accidents. An Atlanta consulting meteorologist undertook an extensive study of the disaster and turned up a number of factors contributing to the severe fog problem. As a result of his study a number of remedial actions were taken, including installation by the state of Tennessee of a $7 million fog warning system.
One of the emerging opportunities in consulting stretches beyond pure meteorological services, such as forecasts or studies, into the realm of providing support for decision makers in weather-sensitive industries. As one supplier of such support puts it, "Users want answers, not forecasts." These answers come in the form of helping client companies understand and predict demand for their products. Weather may be a key influencing factor, but there are other drivers such as product pricing and quality. For this reason, the support given to clients requires comprehensive knowledge of their particular market sector. This in turn means that in addition to a meteorologist, a market-sector expert--one who speaks the language of the client company--must be part of the support team. Additionally, skilled marketing help may be required in order to fully explain to company executives how the use of a sophisticated decision-assistance package can improve their firm's profitability.
Marketing and sales are included under applied meteorology, since products and services do no good unless potential clients are aware of and educated about them. Larger corporations may have stand-alone marketing departments, but smaller companies need meteorologists to wear many hats, including those of marketing experts.
Technical marketing is a specialized application. A marketing or sales representative with little or no technical background can make initial contacts with prospective clients or customers and open some doors. But it takes an individual with detailed knowledge of the system or service being marketed to demonstrate it effectively. Not only are solid technical skills a must for such an individual, but so are superb communication skills. A technical marketer must be able to convey the technical aspects of a product without overwhelming the prospect with jargon and at the same time not seem condescending.
Atmospheric measurements and instrumentation round out the applied meteorology list. There are a number of organizations, including firms dealing with air quality, involved in atmospheric measurements. Such measurements can range from basic monitoring of traditional meteorological parameters (temperature, wind velocity, humidity, etc.) to sophisticated atmospheric chemistry sampling (of carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, etc.) to complex remote-sensing operations (the processing, analysis, and distribution of government-furnished radar and satellite imagery).
There also are companies that design, manufacture, and market the instrumentation with which atmospheric measurements are made. The instrumentation can range from simple rain gauges and thermometers to computerized, self-contained, automated weather observing stations. And then, at the far leading edge of instrumentation technology are those corporations that design and build weather satellites and Doppler radars. Hand-in-hand with the development of such technologically advanced equipment is, of course, the need for user requirement analyses and the genesis of sophisticated software.
Other Career Opportunities