Stuff in the Air - What does a Meteorologist do?

Your quick guide to meteorology and air quality consulting in Canada. Find out what does a meteorologist do and how to find one to do it.

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What does a Meteorologist Do?

A meteorologist works with weather data in the form of maps, photos and charts. This data comes from surface and upper air monitoring stations, satellites, radar and specialized sources including pilot reports. He interprets the data using his intuition and knowledge of geography, math, physics and computers and integrates it with computer model output data.

Workers in this occupation deal with data measured by weather equipment including thermometers, anemometers (for wind speed), hygrometers (for humidity), rain gauges, radar and satellite sensors. The forecaster then prepares forecasts and/or brief reports, meeting the demands of industry and government transport and agriculture departments, amongst others.

More of what does a Meteorologst do: communicates the findings or the work performed to the public and to specialized users (including pilots and air traffic controllers.) Some meteorologists work in the field of pollution control, dealing with climate change and the ozone hole. Others work in atmospheric monitoring. Another set of meteorology occupations works in environmental science, specializing in air dispersion modelling to meet regulatory guidelines on the behalf of government and industry. This is the type of meteorological projects performed by Calvin Consulting.

Please see the Services page for further details about consulting.

For more about weather and meteorology, visit the information on meteorology page.