🌦FIELD GUIDE 12: Weather is magic

Or is it?

Weather’s impact on our daily lives is tuned into our routines. Do you need an umbrella today? Do you know if you’ll need one this weekend? I bet you do.

Skyler

“What is it that they say? We have the only job where we can be wrong 50% of the time and still not get fired.”

Shannon Klug in Saddam Hussein’s palace

Name

Shannon Klug

Occupation

Retired Air Force Weather Officer

Soundtrack

“To everyone else in the world, this song probably sounds morose.  But to me, it represents that happy feeling I get when my weather forecast is 100% spot on!”

Habitat

Northern Virginia. Also spotted in Germany, Pennsylvania, and Florida

How it started

Unsure of where she wanted to go with her college education but knowing she had an interest in science, Shannon declared biology as her major. With the guidance of her dad, she also joined the ROTC program at Penn State University.

Her interests ultimately pointed to Earth Sciences. The ROTC program at Penn State at that time was looking for students showing interest in meteorology, offering scholarships to those students. Penn State University also happens to be one of the few universities that offers a program and degree in meteorology, so it was an easy choice for her.

Through the program, Shannon explored the different sciences within meteorology. She found that Climate Studies was her favorite topic. She said to understand climate studies is like understanding geography.

“Climate Studies is larger scale weather. Longer term weather that happens over a longer period of time. I would say climate is the geography of weather. How does it change over millennia and how will it continue to change?”

Stuff she’s done

• The master’s program Shannon joined focused on climate studies. Specifically focusing on the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere emphasizing their attention on El Niño.

• In 2003, Shannon deployed to Iraq. While there, she had the privilege of meeting with Iraqi meteorologists. She said that their equipment was outdated, and they still recorded weather observations by hand into written ledgers as opposed to putting the data into a computer database. She had the opportunity to share technology and learn about Iraqi weather and climate firsthand from Iraqi experts.

• She provided forecasting reports for rocket launches, aircraft pilots, Air Force One, and provided wartime forecasting.

Fun facts

• The job of meteorologists is not just to predict the weather ahead of time. They also have to stay behind when there are evacuations ordered to forecast the weather throughout any major weather event. They continuously monitor the weather to inform the public on when it will be safe to return. On a broader scale, its a job of public safety.

• Shannon says that Saddam Hussein viewed meteorology and forecasting as a form of magic or voodoo. While he was in leadership he removed the country from the World Meteorological Organization, effectively hiding information about the weather occurring in Iraq from the rest of the world. He didn’t want to “share the magic”.

• El Niño is the warming of surface waters in the Eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The original, full name was El Niño de Navidad. Meaning, “the boy of Christmas”, because El Niño peaks in December. This phenomenon causes the jet stream to move southward leading to wetter weather in the tropics and the Gulf Coast, while bringing dryer and warmer weather to the Northern U.S. and Canada.

• Pilots route their flights based on the forecasts provided to them by meteorologists. Not only do they need the forecast for their take-offs, but they also need forecasts for their destinations as well as to understand the weather they may encounter along the way. Things like freezing rain, turbulence, types of clouds that could result in severe weather, and air pressure values are all things considered.

Getting it right

Shannon says people get the wrong idea about weather and understanding the forecasts given for their areas.

“Say there’s a 40% chance of rain for that day. It isn’t 40% of the area will get rain, it’s not even a 40% chance that it will rain that day. It’s more like, if you take 100 days just like the one you’re having, it’s rained on 40 of them.”

Predicting weather is very tricky, Shannon says. There are many things that go into it – humidity, wind speeds and directions, moving fronts, and air pressure values. But with advancing technology, computer models make predictions more accurate and easier to understand.

On a serious note

In the 90s, meteorologists and other scientists were still trying to determine if climate change was real, but now scientists from many fields like biology, zoology and dendrology are corroborating their material to show that it is a real and serious issue.

“If you look at the image of the Earth from space, you see the white that is the North Pole and Antarctica. It is important that you understand that white is what is reflecting the light and heat away from earth. The dark luscious greenery is absorbing the light and heat. Without the presence of the white snow caps and tundra, we are essentially increasing our greenhouse effect. Heating our world up quicker.

Shannon’s recommendations

How can you understand weather better? Shannon recommends looking up.

“Just look at the sky. So many things can be determined by the type of clouds that are present. But more importantly, I wish people would do their research on climate change. It’s real. What’s scary to me is that some of the climate processes that contribute to warming are accelerating to become a sort of runaway train.”

Learn more

Climate change can be scary or overwhelming, but it is incredibly important. Join Alex Blumberg and a crew of people excited about the climate, as they bring you smart, inspiring stories about how to slow climate change in their podcast, How To Save a Planet.

The World Meteorological Organization is an agency of the United Nations. WMO’s mandate is to create global cooperation and coordination in understanding our Earth’s atmosphere.