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.
Depending on where you are in the world, the holiday season often delivers its own unwanted gift-rough weather. It’s the kind of weather that doesn’t just cause your car to skid, rather shuts down roads, leaves you stranded at airports, disrupts large-scale global business, can cost billions of dollars in damages, and sadly, can even cost lives.
Jessica Victor, along with colleagues from Derby University, have been lucky enough to make a documentary about the Facility for Airborne Measurements (FAAM).
Cammie Czuchnicki, along with her boyfriend Tim, runs Weather Studios. They are both committed storm chasers and keen photographers – a mixture that creates some spectacular pictures. Cammie was awarded first place in the 2013 Royal Meteorological Society's South East annual photography competition. The winning photograph (above) is called 'Tornadic Supercell at night in Kansas: May 2012'. The image captures the last storm in a line of four during a memorable evening in Russell County, Kansas.
