The first indication of an interest in the weather was after listening to a wintry weather forecast on the radio, and asking “Have we got any high ground in our garden, mummy?” The forthcoming snow was confined to the hills.....but a lifetime of amateur observing was beginning.
The cockpit of a small aeroplane is the perfect vantage point for an environmental scientist. Flying above the rainforest canopy of tropical Far North Queensland, the view to the horizon shows the forest across rolling hills to the horizon.
I can date my fascination with the weather back to first watching storm chasing documentaries on TV at about age 14. I used to irritate my Geography teacher by always asking, “When are we going to learn about the weather?” I was particularly interested in the US scientists conducting tornado research, putting themselves right in the storm’s path to collect data with their state of the art mobile radar systems. Little did I know then that 12 years later I would be working with those same scientists and radars, and chasing storms myself!
By Robert Austin
I live near Darlington in NE England in the UK, an area which experiences a wide variety of weather conditions! So, an appropriate location for paintings of skies.
This year Prof Liz Bentley, Chief Executive at the Royal Meteorological Society and Founder of theWeather Club, celebrates a number of different anniversaries – she turned 50 in March, has been a meteorologist now for 25 years and has spent the last 10 years of her career at the Royal Meteorological Society. So it is a perfect opportunity to look back at what inspired Liz to become a meteorologist and her career to date.
Dr Sylvia Knight is Head of Education at the Royal Meteorological Society. In this article she tells us about her role and how she ended up here.
Gordon Tripp is the author of The Weathermen*, a laypersons guide that covers 2,000 years, exploring the many strands that tell the story of weather history – recording instruments, charts, wind circulation, weather diaries, jet streams and so on. The book also documents the lives of over 100 men whose biographies provide the signposts along the way. These were essentially men of their times, be that of The Enlightenment, the Crimean War, the days of the British Empire or of two World Wars.
Dr Jo Elworthy is Director of Interpretation at the Eden Project. Jo has worked at Eden since its inception and is dedicated to sharing the amazing workings of our planet Earth with Eden’s visitors: ‘Visiting the rainforest and experiencing weather and finding out about the relationship between rainforests and climate first hand can help transform our understanding of our world and how we interact with it.’ Here, Jo takes us on a journey to ‘The Weather Maker’ in the Rainforest Biome at the Eden Project.
tWC Editor, Dr Catherine Muller, was recently interviewed for a special edition newspaper which will be handed out in the Ted Baker Store in Heathrow Terminal 3 to mark the launch of their new weather-themed store decor. Here’s what she had to say:
Q. Can you tell us a little about you, your position at the Royal Meteorological Society, and how you got there?
Paul Hudson in the BBC studio during the Weather Show
In the time I’ve worked at the BBC I’ve made programmes about American blues musicians performing in the former Soviet Union, young offenders being rehabilitated through the arts, Royal Navy convoys protecting NATO peace conferences. I’ve interviewed high profile recording artists, read news bulletins and reported live on breaking news stories. And whatever the inherent difficulties of these assignments were, they were at least tangible and there were facts - a story to tell.
