As whatever-weather.com closes our second year online, we’re making a few more tweaks to the site and adding some new features.  In recent months, we started a new video feature called “What’s your weather research?”  We plan to continue that one.  It’s goal is to educate the interested public, meteorologists and weather enthusiasts alike, about what students and researchers across the country are studying regarding our weather and climate, and at the same time, to give those researchers an opportunity to showcase their work on a larger stage.

Our next addition will be a regular feature on our blog titled “What’s That Weather Word?”  In it you will get the official definition of a meteorological term followed by a translation into plain English.  If you, are interested in a specific weather term, please comment on the blog, or email us through our contact page.  We’ll be sure to include your request in a future entry.

We are also working on a few more items to be added soon.  Stay tuned to see what’s next!

Whatever-weather.com continues to grow, and we’re adding a new element to our informational video tab.  Starting with our interview with North Carolina State University PhD. student Casey Burleyson, we’ll be asking researchers about their topics of study.

As it is with “What’s Your Weather Job?” the goal of “What’s Your Weather Research?” is to inform and educate those within the field, those considering becoming meteorologists, and the curious public in general about what is going on in the world of weather.  Think of it as our contribution to the public outreach that the American Meteorological Society has been encouraging recently.

Of course, we are interested in your feedback.  If you are a researcher and would like to be involved in this endeavor, please use the contact tab to let us know.  If there is a field of study that you would like to hear/see more about, let us know that as well.

Thank you, and again, please help spread the word about whatever-weather.com!

I just wanted to take a minute to mention how great it is to have friends.  Friends help each other in good times and bad.  Friends are honest with each other even when the truth hurts.  Friends stand by each other even when one makes mistakes.  Friends make the world a better place.

I’ve had many conversations with friends recently who are unemployed or underemployed and looking for work.  In a tough job market such as ours, it can be easy to want to limit the competition when you find a job that seems just perfect for you.  Maybe it’s tempting not to tell your friend who is looking for the same type of job until after the job closes, or at least after you’ve submitted your rockin’ resume.  Wait!  That’s not what friends do.  Friends help each other out, remember?

There’s nothing like a little competition to bring out the best in each other.  Tell your friend who’s searching for the same job as you are about every posting you find!  Share the link on facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn when you see it.  Does that sound crazy?  I don’t know.  Maybe it is, but it’s the right thing to do.  Then get together with those co-conspirators and critique each other’s resumes, correct grammar in cover letters, and give each other a morale boost!

The song says “I get by with a little help from my friends,” for a reason.  Helping makes you feel better.  Helping cements the personal bonds between people.  Helping makes the world a better place.  Do you see where I’m going here?

Share with your friends even if it means you have a little more competition in the already flooded job market.  Sometimes giving someone else a boosts clears the way for your own success down the road.  Enjoy a little friendly competition, and may the best man or woman win!

When I was about thirteen years old, my father gave me some advice.  I don’t remember what led up to it other than he and I were in the car returning home from an errand.  Since I have three siblings and Dad worked out of town, it was rare to get that one-on-one father/daughter time.  I’m sure his intention was to warn me against boys, but what I took from this advice was so much bigger.  He said, “You only get one reputation, and once you’ve ruined it, that’s it.”  Of course, that’s probably not a direct quote, but it’s pretty close.

At thirteen, I was an awkward, nerdy, tom-boy who took ballet.  Boys were not interested in me, so Dad had nothing to fear.  Still, the advice resonated and kept me out of trouble later in life.  It’s good to be concerned about how others perceive you to a degree.  Never let fear of ridicule keep you from doing the right thing, but you should consider your reputation before doing anything rash.

We’ve seen some pretty dramatic examples of this in the news recently, but you don’t have to be a politician with a funny name to be concerned that your actions online may have an adverse effect on your reputation.  Most web savvy people know that once you post something online it’s there forever, or at least a digital shadow of it remains even if deleted.  If you’re planning on inviting friends, coworkers, professional contacts or potential employers to follow you on twitter, friend you on facebook, or link with you on LinkedIn, then you should be sure that you post only what you would want them to see, or in the case of facebook, block them from seeing those party photos that might cause concern.  In fact, it’s really safe to assume that nothing posted online is truly private or secret with the ability to copy and paste available to everyone.

There’s even more to personal branding than just caution on the web.  You really have to walk the walk in your everyday life.  People can spot a fake from a mile away, and often they’ll tell the online world when they do.

So what is personal branding anyway?  A brand is defined in several ways.  For the purpose of this discussion, it is “a kind or variety of something distinguished by some distinctive characteristic.”  The idea of personal branding is relatively new and pertains to the fact that as a professional, you want to make a name for yourself by standing out in a good way.

Think about the brands you love: Coke, Gap, Apple, Sony, etc.  They stand out in a good way.  They represent a quality product in your mind.  You’ve developed an affinity for them and would choose them over competitors.  Personal branding takes that idea and applies it to one person: yourself.  Who you are and who you present yourself as to the world should be one in the same.  Any place your name appears online should honestly reflect you as a person.  Ideally.

In reality, we are all flawed because we are all human.  We are all unique and complex because we are all human.  What personal branding does is try to highlight our best aspects while ignoring or glossing over our worst.  Maybe instead we should use it to see ourselves in an objective, realistic light and challenge ourselves to become the people we are presenting ourselves to be.

Your personal brand = your reputation.  Live up to it and protect it, so you are able to promote it when necessary.

In my experience as both a communication professional and a meteorologist, I’ve learned that sometimes the most effective way of explaining a difficult concept is by using a good analogy.  (I once used a pizza to explain limited advertising inventory to TV sales people, and they got it.)

Recently, I sat down with Ryan Boyles of the State Climate Office of North Carolina to interview him for our “What’s Your Weather Job?” video feature.  After the interview, we chatted for a while about the difficult task of explaining meteorology and climatology in plain English.  One of the many issues addressed during the conversation was finding analogies to make it simple.

A prime example is using an ice skater’s movements to help explain vorticity.  However, there is not always an easily relatable reference for every topic.  Take climate change, for example.  The data points to the fact that the average global temperature is increasing.  Some will argue the extreme point of view that man is causing every bit of it.  Others will take the opposing extreme stance that we’re coming out of an ice age, so of course, we’re warming.  The general public is left to decide which side to bet on.  Many are tired of the arguments.  They just want to know what’s really happening.  They’re asking if all of the recent events involving tornadoes hitting heavily populated areas are due to man-made global warming.  They seem to expect a simple “yes” or “no” answer.  Right now, in all intellectual honesty, a simple answer is not possible.

However, a simple analogy to explain why the simple answer doesn’t exist might be possible.  So what analogy can we use?  It must be something with which most people can relate on some level.  The only thing I can think of is baking a cake from scratch.  Many ingredients go into a cake.  Altering the type or amount of any one can dramatically change the outcome and flavor of it.  A baker might experiment with different ingredients to find that perfect flavor or the amount of flour and eggs to get the perfect density.  Even time plays a role in the outcome.

So what if we used the cake analogy to try to explain the climate, or better yet, to explain how researchers are trying to create better models to more accurately predict the future of our climate?  The modelers are trying to find the right mix of ingredients that will lead to a realistic outcome.  They’re still working on the recipe.  Once developed, each recipe has to be tested and retested for consistency and flavor.

My analogy still needs some work.  Maybe you can think of a better one.  If so, please share in the comment space below or post in the forum.  All ideas are welcome.  As meteorologists and climatologists, we are all in this together.

For some meteorologists, one of the biggest challenges of their jobs is when they have to explain what they do for a living to non-science minded people.  Recent meteorology grads are fresh from being tested on words such as adiabatic, ageostrophic, vorticity, etc.  I speak from experience when I say that it’s hard to return to describing the weather in simple terms fresh out of school.  On my first day on the air at Weather Eye Radio Network, one of the radio hosts that I spoke with live asked me to explain the Santa Anna winds to an audience in Dickinson, North Dakota.  That request not only took me by surprise, but it took me a minute to find a way to explain them without using technical terms that very few in that small town in western ND would understand.  I was pretty proud of myself when the live hit was over, but the episode reminded me that with all of my new found vocabulary came a new responsibility: explaining science in plain English.

If you think of this responsibility as a war on weather ignorance, broadcast meteorologists are on the frontlines of this battle.  The National Weather Service is right there with them.  Most people get their weather forecasts from the TV and radio.  Some have their local NWS website bookmarked.  Others look up Weather.com or one of the many news related sites for their local forecast.  While reading the forecast is an important part of a person’s day, very few people think about what goes into creating it.  All they want to know is will it rain?  How warm will it be this afternoon?  Do I need a jacket?  Then, if the forecast is a bust, we all hear how worthless meteorologists are.  We mets know better, but there can be some hurt feelings involved in that assessment depending on who is making it.

The American Meteorological Society has been focusing on this idea of communicating science to the public in recent years.  There are so many different aspect of the weather forecast that we take for granted, but are not so easily understood by the general public.  Take for example, precipitation probability forecasting or severe weather probabilities.  We see 20% and call it a slight risk.  The public sees 20% and assumes there’s no risk.  After all, in most cases in other aspects of daily life, 20% isn’t worth betting on.  How often has a 20% chance of thunderstorms produced the pop-up style, summer time, convective storms with heavy rain and plenty of lightning?  The joke there is that if you’re under one of those, your chances of getting wet go up considerably from 20% to 100%.  Joking aside, explaining the percentages and risk categories is our responsibility.

Aside from explaining statistics to our users/viewers/readers, what else can we do to help them understand the weather?  Explaining some basic definitions is a good start.  No, I don’t mean the “rain is water from the sky” kind of basic.  I’m talking about things like the difference between hail and sleet, a watch and a warning, a shower and a sprinkle.

When we define terms in a simple manner, everyone starts from the same page.  I’ve seen a few local meteorologists do a great job of explaining why a winter storm system may drop freezing rain or sleet depending on the temperatures in the different levels of the atmosphere.  It seems like a difficult thing to explain, but with the use of good graphics, it’s possible to sum it up in 30 seconds.  When the audience sees why it’s so hard for us to pin down whether we’ll get sleet or enough ice to snap power lines two days out, they might give us more credit when we get the forecast right, or at least cut some slack when it’s not perfect.

Still, the point of this blog entry isn’t credit or blame.  The point is helping everyone to understand the forecast and what it means to them in their daily lives.  They’re looking for the answer to whether or not to grab the jacket, the umbrella, gloves, or sandals.  They need to know if they should set their NOAA weather radios to alert in case of severe weather or flash flooding.  They need to know if they should consider moving valuables to higher ground.  If we arm them with the definitions of terms like “watch,” “advisory,” or “warning,” then we give them a better opportunity to be proactive.

This is a battle that we’ve been fighting for years, and it probably won’t end any time soon.  However, if we keep at it and reach a few people each day, we’re doing our jobs.

If you ask me what I do, my first answer is “I’m a meteorologist.”  That’s an easy question.  Ask me another.  Like most other human beings, though, there’s more to me than one dimension.  I am also a writer, photographer, videographer, communication junkie, and a few other oddball things.  For some reason, it took me a while, maybe longer than it takes most people, to figure out that I don’t have to be just one thing.  My answer can be more complex.  Why compartmentalize my various interests when combined, they can create some pretty cool stuff?

Many of my meteorologist friends have figured this out.  I look around and I see people like John Wetter, who runs the MN Skywarn Workshop.  He combines his love for weather, Skywarn and storm chasing with an obvious knack for event planning and puts on a pretty amazing one-day event for storm lovers across the Midwest and beyond.  I’m serious, if you’re in the neighborhood, you should go!

I have a few friends who are storm chasers with a knack for photography and videography who are lucky enough to live in or near Tornado Alley.  On occasion, you can see their videos show up after severe weather outbreaks on the Weather Channel or a national morning show.  You’ll also find them getting thousands of hits on youtube and selling photos on their own websites.

There are so many ways to combine your interests with your love for the weather that can either help you find a job or create your own company, or supplement your income.  Here are just a few:

1.       Weather + Videography

Get your own youtube channel and show off your skills!  It costs you nothing to begin, except maybe the price of a good video camera and editing software if you don’t already have them.

2.      Weather + Photography

There are a number of websites offering outlets and store fronts that cost little to nothing to set up.  Café Press and Zazzle are two examples.  I actually began a store on Café Press myself.  It took a few hours to get started, and it was pretty easy to do.  All you need to get paid when your items sell is a Paypal account.

3.      Weather + Graphic Arts

Similar to the photography, but potentially better as far as the number of items available to sell, you can set up an account on one of the aforementioned sites or go freelance and design logos for others selling on those sites.  You could also design logos for start-up businesses that specialize in meteorology.

4.      Weather + Writing

If you like to inform the public about what’s going on with the weather, you may try writing for an online “publication” like examiner.com or demand studios.  If you enjoy being more creative, you could try writing a book and self-publishing it on lulu.com or a similar print-on-demand publisher.  If you are good at technical writing, you might try getting contract work with companies that create software or hardware used by meteorologists.

5.      Weather + Software

Since I mentioned it, if you are good at writing programs, you might want to consider creating your own software for use by other meteorologists.  Seriously!  How many times have you been using a program thinking to yourself, “Who designed this?” or “Why didn’t they make it easier to use?”  So, why don’t you do it?  One of my favorite past managers once asked me “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?” and while I don’t think he originated the thought, I do remember it fondly.  I’m pretty sure that it was used during the conversation about my leaving his employment to start whatever-weather.com.

6.      Weather + Speaking/Teaching

If you enjoy public speaking and teaching others about the weather, then you might want to consider setting yourself up as a professional speaker.  Talk to school kids and teach them grade-specific lessons about the atmosphere, the water cycle, and thunderstorms.  Speak to community groups, seniors groups, even meetup groups about it.  Everyone loves to talk about the weather, and many love to take their newly found knowledge and impress others with it.  Go teach!  Give them that chance!

If you read interviews with truly successful entrepreneurs, one thing that usually stands out is how they figured out how to combine their natural talents with their interests in a way that let them enjoy what they do.  The more passionate you are, the better!  Enthusiasm is contagious!  If your excited about what you’re doing and you share that excitement, you’ll excite others around you.  I am not saying that you’ll become rich over night by doing any of these things, but you might make a few extra dollars, pad your resume, and make some new professional connections while you’re at it.  So go!  Combine your love for weather + whatever and have fun!

I hope all of you are having a great New Year!  2011 is starting out strong here at Whatever-Weather.  Many of you have probably noticed by now that we’ve added a new feature to our forum in the past week.  Under the “Network” tab, you’ll find the topic “Forecasts.”  Peruse that section and you’ll see that we have a group of meteorologists providing forecasts for various regions around the country.

First we’d like to thank Richard, David, Kristin, Tony, Jeremy, and Carrie & Paul for happily stepping up to be our first ever forecasters.  Each of them will be providing insights and opportunities for discussion as the weather in their respective regions warrants.  Feel free to join the Network and participate by asking questions, giving opinions, and even reporting conditions in your area.

Second, I’d like to invite more forecasters to join our Network.  If you would like to forecast for a region that has not yet been claimed, please contact us.  While any meteorologist can be a forecaster, there are some ground rules to follow, and we’d like to make sure that there are not too many people trying to forecast for the same region.  Each area will have one main forecaster, but again, feel free to add to the discussion if the region you’re interested in has been taken.

Third, we’d like to remind everyone that our forum is free to use just like our job board.  In an effort to reduce the number of spammers that we have seen in the last week, we now require that users be authorized by the administrator.  That process should not take long, and we will not sell your email or any other information that you provide to us to anyone.  Please don’t let this extra step for the security of all keep you from participating.

As always, thanks to everyone for your continued support and please keep spreading the word about us.  Don’t forget to check out the new postings on our job board, too!

As we celebrate our first full year online, I’d like to thank our friends, bloggers, job posters, and everyone else for your support once again.  We still have big plans for whatever-weather as we continue to do something different.

With the job board and the new video feature, jobs and information continue to be our focus.  In the beginning of 2011, we will start a campaign to raise greater awareness of our free job board.  In a recent US News and World Report list, meteorologist made it into the top 50 careers because of the expected growth in the number of jobs in the next several years.  With a job board where it is free to post and free to search, we see no reason that we can’t provide a great resource for employers and job seekers alike.

Additionally, we will continue to add interviews with meteorologists who work in different sectors of the field to our video feature “What’s your weather job?”.  Our goal is to educate the public, especially meteorology students and experienced meteorologists looking to expand their horizons, about the multitude of types of weather jobs out there.

Our expectation for 2011 is continued growth and new ideas.  Stay tuned to see what’s next!

It’s very hard to keep a positive attitude during a job hunt when we are constantly being reminded of how bad the economy is.  Recently, I’ve noticed some signs pointing in a more positive direction overall.  For example, the consumer outlook for the holiday season is said to be a little brighter.   While people are being smarter with their money, they are at least spending it again, which is always a good sign of recovery.

I speak from experience when I say that keeping your chin up can be tough in a flooded job market.  Look around and you’ll see more meteorologists than job postings.  That doesn’t mean that a job seeker should give up his goal of being a gainfully employed met.  What it means is that you have to set yourself apart from the others, be persistent in your search, apply to everything that you see for which you might be qualified, and don’t give up.  You never know when someone looking to hire a meteorologist has someone with your specific skill set in mind.  They might not know they are looking for you either until you take the time to point out why you are a great fit for their job.

The thing to remember is that if you tell yourself that you won’t be the most qualified candidate for this job or that one, and you convince yourself not to waste your time on the extensive application process (and I know some of those online applications can take over an hour to complete), then you have already lost your chance at that job.  The old adage that you never fail until you stop trying is true, especially in the case of hunting for and landing a job.  While you may not even make it into the top tier of candidates, you will have at least gained the experience of one more application, tweaking the resume that much more, and finding a way to market yourself as the great meteorologist that you are!

So keep at it and stay hopeful.  A positive attitude can lead to great things!