Any Meteorologists here?

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jetra2

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Hey all,

Weather absolutely fascinates me. In particular, severe storms, such as tropical cyclones and tornadoes/supercells. I have been reading as much as I can on the National Weather Service site about tornadoes, reading all the tropical cyclone updates at https://www.nhc.noaa.gov , looking at the available satellite imagery, and as a result of all this, I have made a decision. I want to study meteorology. Luckily, the college I take classes at offers Meteorology as an available class/elective, so I am going to take it during the spring semester and see if this is something I'd like to pursue further.

If there are any meteorologists and/or weather buffs here that care to share any information they have, I would be appreciative.

Thanks,
Jason
 
My son started his first year of college this year-
yep, Meteorology !
 
My first computational fluid dynamics course in grad school was offered by the Atmospheric Sciences department. I was interested in modeling fluid dynamics of aircraft and rocket motors. These guys were modeling global weather. Same equations. Same techniques. Different application. The grader for the course was a grad student by the name of Lou Wicker. If you've ever seen the NOVA episode on the tornado chasers, Lou was the featured grad student on that show (kind of like the movie "Twister," except it was the real thing and far more interesting). Apparently he figured out that chasing tornadoes was a bit nutty so he turned toward modeling and simulation instead. If I remember right, he's now a professor at Texas A&M.

Interesting subject, and you might just find applications for what you learn in your hobby!
 
I, too, am facinated by weather. I took a couple of meterology classes in college and enjoyed them tremendously. There is a lot to learn and some very practical stuff will be discovered.

Taking these types of electives is what the 'general' element of and education is all about, IMO. While many feel that schooling is simply a means to a skill and a job it is the electives one must take that truly make an education and make one 'educated.' Many interests I've had over the years have been sparked by classes taken, things once learned and as such make a person a life-long learner.

By all means take some weather classes, other earth sciences, some anthropology, a foreign language or two, religion, art, music, history, geography, math and writing - anything - you'll someday be glad you did and be better for it. You'll learn to be able to talk about more than what you had for lunch yesterday and find life, people and ideas more interesting.

Sorry this doesn't really answer your question - I just jumperd at the opportunity to say what I'm trying to teach my kids.
 
Originally posted by jetra2
If there are any meteorologists and/or weather buffs here that care to share any information they have, I would be appreciative.
I have a friend that's a SysAdmin for NOAA in Jacksonville and my daughter
babysits for one of the local TV meteorologists... Email or PM with any
specifics you're looking for and I'll see if they could help.


"The Weather Channel- MTV for the elderly." -- my wife :)
 
Originally posted by jetra2
If there are any meteorologists and/or weather buffs here that care to share any information they have, I would be appreciative.

Thanks,
Jason

Sign up for NOAA storm watcher class. T hey teach you how to recognize when a front is starting to shred so you can be watching in the right place in case a funnel forms. It happens a lot more than people think.
 
I was a major weather geek as a kid (still am, really), and really wanted to be a TV meteorologist. Then, I found out just how bloody much math and physics you need for a meteorology degree. Holy cow. If you've got the aptitude for it, go for it...but be forewarned! :D (I wound up getting a business degree; not nearly so much math.)

I did take a survey-level meteorology course in college; it was one of my favorite elective classes.
 
Much like Kenobi, I was a weather-nut growing up. It was The Weather Channel 24/7 in my house. So, when college came around, I enrolled in the meteorology program at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire. Then, 3 semesters later, having flunked physics and barely passed Calculus I on the second try, I changed majors to Geography [didn't even know you could major in that]. The freshman meteorology book was one of the few textbooks I held on to.
 
Meteorology is a GREAT career! How many people can be that wrong, that often, and STILL collect a paycheck? Yesterday the guy was saying that is was gonna be sunny and unseasonably warm all day. It was actually drizzling at the time and we didn't see the sun until about a half hour before it set. I swear the local weather forecasters have less than a 50% chance of being right. I can look at the regional radar and do a better job on the 12 hour forecast.
:mad:
Sorry. It just seems like a very inexact "science" to me.
 
meteorology is a great hobby and it leads to many other hobbies. in college I had a job programming databases for a wx forecasting firm. this lead to an intereste in hf wefax & vhf wesat fax, which lead to more ham stuff and radar classes... I got more interested in meteorology because I wanted to win more sailboat races and understand local conditions - San Francisco Bay has some wild swings in microclimates!

if you know the microclimates you can make very accurate predictions. but the tv weatherman has to cover too large an area for any of it to be true. the future of weather is "nowcasting" - specific narrow forecasts.
 
Of course, sounding rockets have been pivotal in weather research, not to mention satellite imagery, which is basically what it's all about these days... :D

Remember the movie Marooned, where they launched a Titan III-C through the eye of a hurricane??

:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Originally posted by rbeckey
Meteorology is a GREAT career! How many people can be that wrong, that often, and STILL collect a paycheck?


50,000 plus neuroscientists make much more than most meteorologists, and have no real idea how the subject of their profession, the brain, really works. The ones that know the most are mostly very aware of how little they actually understand about the brain. After 12 years of college and positions at two of the best research institutions on the planet, I can confidently state that I am absolutely certain that I have no clue.
 
Originally posted by DynaSoar
After 12 years of college and positions at two of the best research institutions on the planet, I can confidently state that I am absolutely certain that I have no clue.

Your name wouldn't be Heisenberg, would it?
 
Originally posted by rbeckey
Meteorology is a GREAT career! How many people can be that wrong, that often, and STILL collect a paycheck?
Dan Rather? :D
 
Meterology fascinates me, though when the tornado sirens go off I start hyperventilating and go into overdrive from the basment and back getting my stuff..... :rolleyes: I once inquired at the NWS office (pretty close to me, within biking distance) and the guy who answered teh door gave me a mini-tour. If you're interested, you could probably do that. I hope to get a degree in meterology when I am old enough to go to college.....
 
quote:
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Originally posted by rbeckey
Meteorology is a GREAT career! How many people can be that wrong, that often, and STILL collect a paycheck?
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Took a while to find this again, but here goes:
-----------------------------------
Consider a rotating spherical envelope of a mixture of gases— occasionally murky and always somewhat viscous. Place it around an astronomical object nearly 8000 miles in diameter. Tilt the whole system back and forth with respect to its source of heat and light. Freeze it at the poles of its axis of rotation and intensely heat it in the middle. Cover most of the surface of the sphere with a liquid that continually feeds moisture into the atmosphere. Subject the whole to tidal forces induced by the sun and a captive satellite.

Then try to predict the conditions of one small portion of that atmosphere for a period of one to several days in advance.
------------------------------------

The more you learn about meteorology, the more you wonder that we can predict the weather at all!
 
Originally posted by MetMan
quote:
The more you learn about meteorology, the more you wonder that we can predict the weather at all!

Its those stinkin' butterflies, I tell ya! If they'd all just stop flappin' their wings in China we'd have weather forecasting down cold (so to speak).
 
Tonight's episode of NOVA features Bob Wilhelmson - who I took my first CFD class from at Illinois - and Lou Wicker who I mentioned above. Look for the episode titled "Hunt for the Supertwister"...looks excellent.
 
Never mind...the local Washington Post TV listings were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off. This episode appeared back in March. Tonight's episode was something about the Red Baron.

Funny...the Post's TV listings also indicate that the Nixon-Kennedy debate is on live tonight as well...
 
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