As students across the country return to the classroom, we at WeatherNation want to help get kids excited about school and future careers. With so many options, it can be daunting for students to narrow down their career path, but we’re here to help. We spoke to a few industry experts about their careers and their advice for students hoping to enter the exciting field of meteorology.
If you’re interested in spending time in a lab, poring over the latest experimental results, analysing complex data and drawing conclusions that help improve the field of meteorology, a career in research meteorology might be the right path for you.
Jake Sober has worked for the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) for the past few years, working on a variety of projects including hail, high winds and tornado damage. Sober earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University and encourages all future meteorologists to stay curious.
Job roles for meteorologists in the private sector range from working in areas such as energy, supply chain analysis, agriculture, insurance, etc. With so many options to choose from, the private sector gives meteorologists (with a variety of interests) the opportunity to explore how weather affects a variety of industries.
James Waller has worked in the reinsurance industry for over 12 years, gaining valuable experience working on the National Building Code of Canada and defining tornado-prone areas. He has served as a consultant on snow loads and wind loads for buildings while supporting Environment Canada’s Climate Adaptation Group. Waller encourages future meteorologists to diversify their skill sets to become more marketable in the field.
Students need teachers, but there’s much more to being a future university meteorologist than lecturing. Many meteorology professors are expected to conduct research in addition to their teaching duties, and Janine Baijanath Rodino wants to remind anyone aspiring to a career in academia.
“You have to be really excited and want to do research,” explains the current director of meteorology at UCLA, “because the road can be long and tedious. You have to learn to be self-reliant and an independent thinker.”
With 122 National Weather Service offices across the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam, the National Weather Service provides critical forecasts to a variety of industries and the general public. For many weather enthusiasts, becoming a meteorologist with the National Weather Service may be a lifelong dream, but for National Weather Service Fort Worth meteorologist Maddie Gordon, it wasn’t her first choice.
Gordon originally attended Texas A&M University with a different major, but realized he’d found his passion when Hurricane Harvey struck. He was familiar with meteorology because his mother is a professional storm chaser, but Harvey sparked a newfound love for the weather and the service that comes with that career path.
iMets, or iMets for short, provide on-the-ground support to firefighters battling wildfires. A vital part of the team, they provide decision makers with the information they need to successfully combat the blazes raging through the nation’s wildlands.
While iMets can be deployed to help with other natural disasters, Matt Jegrum knows how helpful weather forecasters can be on the ground. Before becoming a meteorologist, Jegrum worked as a wildfire firefighter. He knows what it’s like on the front lines, which allows him to better connect his forecasts to the brave men and women who fight the fires.
Space may seem like the final frontier, but NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center is working to make sense of what’s happening all around the planet. Space weather meteorologists are a team working behind the scenes to make sure geomagnetic events don’t disrupt the nation’s power grid, satellites and GPS systems.
Sean Dahl, SWPC’s service coordinator, began his career in the U.S. Air Force before moving to the National Weather Service. Dahl worked in the upper air weather program in Hawaii and implemented education and outreach programs. Now Dahl wants to educate the public on how impactful space weather can be.
