Welsh 
Spotlight on careers
Below we spotlight a selection of the different careers that can be followed in meteorology.
Penny Tranter: Meteorology Training Manager at
the Met Office
Fiona Campbell - Meteorologist at the Carbon Trust
Derek Swannick - Royal Navy Meteorologist
Steff Gaulter - Senior Weather Presenter for Al Jazeera
English
Dr. Sylvia Knight, Head of Education Services, Royal Meteorological Society
Dr. Andrew Challinor, Lecturer, Leeds University
Penny Tranter
What inspired your interest in Meteorology?
Living in southwest Scotland, as I did as a child, you get used to the changeable
and at times wild nature of the weather and the sea. I was brought up close
to the town of Troon on the Ayrshire coast with a view from our house out
to the Firth of Clyde, the Kyles of Bute, Isle of Arran and the Mull of
Kintyre. The weather then, as it probably does now as well, always featured
quite highly in our daily life, and there is a local saying: If you cannot
see the Isle of Arran - it is raining, and if you can see it - it will
soon be raining!
My passion for weather though, really took off when the infamous Clyde Valley
storm on 14/15 January 1968, caused extensive roof damage to our house and
also to many other houses around us. I can still vividly recall the roaring
noise of the wind that night, and as a young child, I was very scared! I remember
it was a huge talking point the next morning and we watched the TV to see
the devastation that had happened across vast swathes of southwest Scotland.
And I remember about 20 people were killed and that it badly affected parts
of Glasgow, especially the Gorbals area, where residents in the high blocks
of flats said they had 'swung like a swing!' This extreme weather event made
me curious about how weather worked and the environment, and how weather could
be so bad that it could cause destruction and also death.
After a family move to southern England, to Salisbury in my teenage years, this interest intensified, as the weather was very different from western Scotland - and I wanted to know why! I even made a mini-weather station in the garden, including a plastic rain gauge, which I did as part of my Guide Weather badge. I knew in my teenage years that I wanted to become a weather forecaster and I can remember watching Bert Foord and Barbara Edwards on the TV, and starting to learn about the weather maps and the different weather that the different weather patterns gave.
What job do you do now?
Since January 2008, I have been the Meteorology Training Manager at the Met
Office College at the Met Office HQ in Exeter. We train all our weather
forecasters there, as well as providing other weather training for other
roles within the Met Office. We are also increasingly providing weather
courses for external customers - varying from Government Departments to
the media.
This new job is very exciting and I am currently learning new skills from
budgets and procurement to actually running a 2 day training course. It uses
many skills that I have already gained: weather forecasting, working to tight
deadlines and under pressure, liaising and working with the Met Office's customers
and managing a highly skilled team of people. A typical day may include: dealing
with a request to price a new training course, resolving student issues, working
on our course schedules for 2009 and liaising with the College staff to ensure
we are keeping our course content up to date and accurate.
Although I miss all my colleagues at the BBC, I am not missing working shifts!
How did you reach your current job?
I joined the Met Office as a trainee weather forecaster in 1983 after my degree.
I gained a good deal of UK weather forecasting experience and knowledge
in the following 9 years, from working in different Met Office centres
around the country from Glasgow to Southampton, and from Norwich to Plymouth.
From 1992-2008 I worked in the BBC Weather Centre as a weather presenter.
I regularly broadcasted on TV and radio on BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 4, News 24,
BBC World, BFBS, Radio 2, Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live.
Qualifications
Degree in Environmental Sciences at University of East Anglia
(Norwich) majoring in weather and climate
Chartered Meteorologist
and a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society.
A levels in Maths,
Chemistry, Geography.
Fiona Campbell
I
am a meteorologist with a passion for the environment and love of sailing.
I currently work for the Carbon Trust as
well as running my own marine meteorology business, Skye
Weather Ltd. and working with Skandia Team GBR. Britain is the world's
most successful sailing nation & sailing is the UK's most successful sport
since the 2004 Athens Olympics!
From 2000-2001 I was a weather forecaster for Onlineweather.com, a newly formed company. I was responsible for compiling, writing and distributing UK wide city, regional, outdoor (mountain, marine and motor sports) & farming forecasts to many clients including MSN, B&Q & the majority of Scottish Newspapers.
In 2001, I became the meteorologist for the GBR Challenge America's Cup Team and the RYA UK Olympic Team Meteorologist. I produce forecasts for all Olympic, European & World regattas, including the 2004 Athens Olympics. The consequences of sailing in the wrong conditions could cost sailing teams many weeks and tens of thousands of pounds. I advise designers about the likely wind and wave conditions the boats will experience, using data from the area as well as computer models. There is a lot of media interest in my work for example from the BBC . I am now a consultant meteorologist for UK sport, providing information not only for the Olympic sailing teams for Beijing 2008 and London 2012, but also on training venues for all sports. I help sailors and their coaches, at all levels, develop their meteorological understanding.
Qualifications
BSc Meteorology, Department of Meteorology, Reading University
Scottish Highers; English, Geography, Maths, Physics, Chemistry
Commander Derek Swannick
I
was originally inspired to follow a meteorological career by the
accounts of how the weather, and trying to make the most of it, had played their
part in conflicts across the globe throughout history. The opportunities
provided by the Royal Navy have enabled me to apply my qualifications to
forecasting meteorology and oceanography in contemporary operations all
over the world. From the very start of my career, first hand experience
of being at sea during periods of heavy weather, not least the 1987 storm,
as well as trying to safely use, and gain advantage for ships, aircraft and
submarines from the climate, weather and atmospheric or ocean structures
have affirmed for me the enduring impact of the elements on maritime and
Defence interests.
Early in my career I served in frigates, survey vessels, aircraft carriers and auxiliaries as well as at air stations ashore. I then commanded both the CinC Fleet's Weather and Oceanography Centre at Northwood and the Royal Navy's Hydrographic, Meteorological and Oceanographic Training Group in Plymouth before moving to work in London. I am responsible for the day to day management of the Ministry of Defence programmes to provide hydrographic, meteorological and oceanographic information from both the Meteorological Office and the UK Hydrographic Office. I am also the Royal Navy representative on the RMetS Accreditation Board.
Qualifications
WMO Meteorologist
Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society
MA Defence Studies (2002) (King's College London)
Royal Navy's Hydrographic Surveying Course (1996) (IHO Cat B Surveyor)
Royal Navy's Meteorological and Oceanographic Officer's Qualifying
Course (1992) (Now recognised as PGDip in Applied Meteorology and Oceanography
and fulfilling RMetS requirements for CMet and WMO Meteorologist)
BSc Applied Physics and Solid State Electronics (Heriot Watt) (1989)
A Levels, Physics, Maths, French, General Studies
Steff Gaulter
All
four of my grandparents were maths teachers, as was my father, so I suppose
it was inevitable that I would end up in a similar field. However, I was always
difficult and was the only one of my siblings not to study maths at University.
Instead I studied Natural Science at Cambridge University, specialising in physics. Obviously there's a lot of maths in physics, but I far preferred it, as there was more of a link to the real world. I loved the way that things did as they were told: balls thrown into the air, waves in a ripple tank, and even winds in the atmosphere.
Soon after leaving Cambridge I saw an advert for the Met Office. They were looking for maths and physics graduates to become forecasters. I've never looked back.
The Met Office's forecasting course is very intense, with months spent at a residential college and plenty of on-the-job training before you qualify. I loved it, and was the first person to get a distinction in their final forecasting exam.
Once qualified, the Met Office has a huge variety of careers available to you. With them I worked at RAF bases, commercial centres and also for the BBC. I really enjoyed working in media, being the weather expert; presenters could throw any question at you and you had to know the answer.
After a few years, I joined Sky News, where I also appeared on FiveNews, Virgin Radio, TalkSport and even on Richard and Judy! I've recently changed jobs again and I now live in Qatar, in the Middle East.
I was offered the job of Senior Weather Presenter for Al Jazeera English and for about the first 6 months I was the entire Weather Department! It was a very daunting time, turning up 2 weeks before we launched, redesigning the graphics, researching the forecast for the entire globe, being on-call 24 hours a day and doing all the presenting. But I've always loved a challenge.
Now our weather department has more than one member, I'll get a chance to visit exciting places that I wouldn't consider from the UK: Dubai, Muscat, Kuwait, even the Seychelles and the Maldives aren't far from here.
I certainly wouldn't be where I am today without a physics degree, and please don't ask me where I see myself in 5 year's time. I don't even know what country I'll be in! A career in meteorology can take you anywhere.
Qualifications
Forecaster Training Programme, Met Office
BA Natural Science (Physics), Cambridge University
A Levels: Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry
Dr. Sylvia Knight
I enjoyed meteorology (and all aspects of physical geography) a lot at school, as well as being strong at maths and physics. I was never really sure what I wanted to study but somewhere picked up the information that, if I wanted to end up being a meteorologist, it was probably best to do a physics degree. So, I decided to study Natural Sciences, where I could at least put off specialising until the last year of my degree. In the end, I took physics and geology in my second year, and physics in my third. With a good degree, it was relatively easy to get a funded place at Reading University’s Meteorology Department to work towards a Ph.D.
My Ph.D. topic was very theoretical – looking at how very large waves in the atmosphere interact with weather system development. After that, I spent some time using computer models to explore how changes in stratospheric ozone (associated with the growth and predicted recovery of the ozone hole) affect the climate at the Earth’s surface. More recently, I worked with the climateprediction.net project (http://www.climateprediction.net). I was responsible for the communication side of a project which is wholly reliant on volunteers around the world donating computer time – so I had to make sure that people heard about the project, and then had the opportunity to learn about the project and what the computer models are telling us about the Earth’s climate. Part of this involved working with teachers to develop resources for schools.
I now work for the Royal Meteorological Society, and am responsible for their education activities – from primary schools right through to continuing professional development for Chartered Meteorologists.
I was lucky enough to take part on a student field trip, sailing in the Solent.
It was the most ‘hands on’ meteorology I have done, and I particularly
enjoyed listening to the shipping forecast and working out what that meant
the weather
map looked like over the British Isles.
I also, for a brief period of time, helped a colleague who was supporting
an attempt on the world altitude record for a manned balloon http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3078074.stm
The balloonists needed to know exactly where their balloon would land – it
had to be over water, and it had to be within range of the ship that would
rescue them, and so needed custom-made forecasts for the trajectory of the
balloon.
In 2005 I visited several countries, including Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Russia,
to talk about predicting the climate on behalf of the British Council. That
was extremely interesting!
Qualifications
Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Reading
M.A. in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge
A levels in Maths, Physics, Geography and German
Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society
Dr. Andrew Challinor
I moved from a physics degree to a Ph.D. in forested boundary layers because I wanted to use my skill for a practical purpose. It was a case award with the Forestry Commission, who wanted to know how to forecast wind damage to trees. I had already been introduced to atmospheric physics whilst on an Erasmus year in Spain, and I knew I liked modelling after having modelled galactic hydrogen lines in my final year physics project (we had to model them, as the radio telescope was kaput - even when pointed at the sun we got no signal). From my Ph.D. I moved to Reading University to look at linking weather and climate forecasts with models of crop productivity. My models allowed me to explore the effects of climate variability and long term change on crop growth and development. I was a sort of bridge between agriculture and meteorology, with the ultimate goal of contributing to food security, particularly for people in Tropical areas.
I am a Lecturer in climate change modelling at Leeds University. I'm now going to be expanding my work even more broadly, and working with folk in the Sustainability Research Institute, so that as well as the biology and physics, we also consider the socio-economics of climate change in our models.
Qualifications
Ph.D. in Meteorology and Forest micro-climate from the School of the Environment,
the University of Leeds
B.Sc. in Physics (European), The University of Leeds
A levels in Physics, Maths, Economics and Spanish
See also Talking Jobs
An online resource of video interviews exploring people's working lives and careers, including an interview with a meteorologist