It's Raining Fish and Spiders (36 page)

Dude, Do You Know You're Talking to a Green Wall?

I always get asked, “How do you know what you're pointing to when you stand in front of a blank green wall?”

I always answer, “Practice, practice, practice,” which, of course, is also how you get to Carnegie Hall! When I look at the barren optic green screen, I can also see TV monitors to either side of the wall. I can see myself and the images behind me.

It definitely does take a little practice to know where you are pointing. Sometimes when I have a group of students on the set, I'll let them try it. Nearly every time, someone says, “Here's California,” while pointing at Florida!

My favorite prank to play on someone new to the TV business (or on one of my interns) is to ask them if they wouldn't mind getting the “chroma key” from the newsroom. This starts off a chain reaction in the building as everyone at work is familiar with this ingenious form of torture and is in on my little joke.

“Do you have the chroma key?” asks the naïve little innocent. “Why, you know, I don't, but I think Bob on the assignment desk does,” says a person who is struggling to keep from bursting with laughter. Bob sends the victim to someone else, who then sends them to someone else, and so on. Finally, when they have been exhausted by this find-the-chroma-key-quest, they end up back in the boss's office…and I then kindly explain the weather department's little form of pseudosadism! It's all in fun and everybody gets a good laugh. Plus, it teaches a great lesson about the “chroma key”!

How Do I Get a Job in This Biz?

In a recent survey by the
Jobs Ranked Almanac
, the career of meteorologist was ranked seventh out of 250 jobs. Woo hoo! I knew being a meteorologist was fun! The rankings are based on factors including environment, security, stress, income, employment outlook, and physical demands.

What's great about the field is that you have many careers to choose from. You can work in broadcasting, like me, or choose from a number of other weather-related jobs that are just as exciting and rewarding, from taking weather instrument observations to working with supercomputers. You can work for many federal agencies, including the CIA and the military; in private meteorology; for local or state government; for universities, utility companies, engineering consulting firms, or Wall Street.

If you love weather, are curious about the world around you, like science and math, and wish to work in a field where things can change in an instant, then meteorology is for you!

First, you are going to need a college degree in atmospheric science or meteorology. More than one hundred universities, large and small, offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in atmospheric or related sciences in the United States and Canada. In addition, the American Meteorological Society has an online weather course that has been licensed by three hundred colleges and universities across the country.

You don't have to study meteorology to contribute to the field. There are a lot of physicists and computer scientists in meteorology. A degree in math, science, chemistry, or physics is highly regarded as well.

Some cool meteorology jobs are not on TV or radio. You could be a forensic meteorologist. Let's say an insurance company needs to find out, “Was this house destroyed by a tornado or straight-line winds?” A forensic meteorologist might be hired to investigate the case. You'd have to do a lot of research and amazing science, and you might even be called on to testify in a court of law. I have done that myself and I can tell you, it's
very
exciting.

I was asked to be an expert witness in a case involving the newly built home of the wealthiest person in the town where I was doing the weather on TV. A hurricane had damaged his home and the owner was suing the contractor who had built the house. The owner was saying that the damage done by heavy rains was due in large part to a poor construction job. He contended that the cedar-shingled roof and cedar-tile walls leaked.

The lawyer who was representing the contractor took me to see the damage and asked for my expert assessment. This is the exact job of a forensic meteorologist and that made me, Bill Evans, Forensics Man! I examined the damage, examined the building, and took a tour of the neighborhood. I went back to my office and researched the hurricane, which was named Elena. (Look up that hurricane and you will know where I was!) I checked at the wind pattern, the amount of rain, and the path of the storm.

As it turned out, the culprit was the direction of the wind and the path it took between the houses near the wealthy guy's home. The wind was funneled in such a way that it sent rain and wind underneath the eaves of the roof of this beautiful, brand-new, cedar-tiled home. I know you're asking, “What about insurance?” The house's owner did not have flood insurance, and his homeowner's insurance company was skeptical. Plus, the homeowner was really angry. He wanted to obliterate the guy who had built his new, leaky house.

But it was actually the architect who was at fault—his design was flawed. I had figured it out! I had enough evidence to keep the contractor who built the home from losing a fortune and having his career tarnished.

This was only the beginning of my adventure. I had to testify on the witness stand, in court, against a guy who had so much money he could have bought me ten times over!

On trial day, I was taken to the witness room, where all those who have to testify must sit and wait to be called. It was a big room with dark, wood floors and tall windows in an old-style federal courthouse. Sitting there, all alone in the room, I thought, “I wish I were in the Witness Protection Program!”

“Mr. Evans, time to go see the judge,” boomed the very deep voice of the bailiff. It's the bailiff's job to run the court for the judge.

After swearing to tell the truth, I had to answer all kinds of questions from the lawyers for both sides while the richest guy in town stared me down from his chair. His piercing, ice-blue eyes gave me the creeps! After I'd explained the basics of how hurricanes work and answered all the lawyers' questions, the judge spoke. “So, Mr. Evans, tell the court: In your best opinion, what was the reason for all the flood damage to the home?”

I explained to the judge that the rich dude's home faced south and the two nearby houses faced west. There was a grove of trees on each side. As Hurricane Elena traveled east to west, the winds in this area were out of the east to northeast and were channeled between the two houses and the tree grove. This acted like a shotgun blast, sending rain and wind into the home in question since the eaves underneath the roof were built open, which was the norm in that part of the country. It was my opinion that the water damage was due to geological and design reasons. The whole time I was talking, I was shaking like crazy on the inside! “Thank you for your expert testimony today, Mr. Evans. You are dismissed,” said the judge kindly.

As I was walking down the hall to leave, I felt a tap on my shoulder. “You did a fine job.” I turned around and it was the rich dude, who was looking at me with those eyes that seem to fire an ice-blue laser beam right through my stomach!

“Thanks,” I said.

The rich guy lost—but he also won in the end. He was able to work out a settlement with the architect whose design had failed. It was a great experience for me, and I learned a lot about what a forensic meteorologist has to do.

What Other Kinds of Work Can I Do?

There's private industrial forecasting. You might work for a private company or you might work as a consultant who does forecasting for many businesses. A ski resort might need help with snowmaking. You might forecast the weather for a film production company planning to shoot on an outdoor set, or for the cruise ship industry. You might be hired by utility companies to provide warnings of storms that might damage their equipment or cause service interruptions.

You could work for the federal government, for the National Weather Service or for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA has a number of really cool ships that travel the world doing research and undersea mapping. How cool would it be to travel all over the world and study the atmosphere or the ocean!

I Want to Be the Donald Trump of Meteorology!

One area that is really growing is forecasting for Wall Street firms.

I once had an intern named Rob, who decided he did not want to work in broadcasting. After he finished meteorology school, Rob took a job with a Wall Street investment firm, forecasting weather for the commodities section. Rob would give the traders long-range weather forecasts, and they would use the information to guide their purchases of commodities like corn, wheat, coffee, sugar, and cocoa.

Rob's forecasts projected weather conditions 120 days into the future. If he predicted floods or a drought—any kind of bad weather that could destroy crops—the brokers he worked with would buy hundreds of tons of wheat or corn before the bad weather hit. Then, with less wheat or corn available in the marketplace due to bad weather, the firm would make a lot of money when they sold the crops. At the end of Rob's first year with his firm, he got a huge cash bonus. He was quite excited and was certainly happy with his career choice!

There are other interesting Wall Street connections, such as a hedge fund I know of that operates in hurricanes. Basically, the fund tries to figure out where the next hurricane will hit. Then it invests its clients' money in companies that will benefit from the storm. For instance, the fund might invest in a home-improvement company such as Home Depot and make their money when the company's stock rises when it sells a lot of building supplies before or after a damaging hurricane.

As you can see, there are plenty of different kinds of weather-related jobs.

I like the fact that there is a large public service component to meteorology. It is a great, rewarding job because you educate the public and help protect society. You are helping people become more aware of natural hazards.

I really hope that one day we will be colleagues in this great field of science we call meteorology!

Some Great Web Sites! >>>>

Lightning

Flooding

Drought