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Anders Celsius

Wladimir Peter Köppen

John Dalton
William Morris Davis Gabriel Fahrenheit
Alfred Wegener
William Ferrel

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Famous meteorologists include forecasters from the past, individuals from today, and people from all over the world. Some were forecasting weather before anyone even used the term " meteorologists."

John Dalton

John Dalton was a British weather pioneer. Born September 6, 1766, he was most famous for his scientific opinion that all matter is actually made up of small particles. Today, we know those particles are atoms. But, he was also fascinated by the weather each day. In 1787, he used homemade instruments to start recording weather observations.

Although the instruments he used were primitive, Dalton was able to gather a large amount of data. Much of what Dalton did with his meteorological instruments helped to turn the forecasting of weather into actual science. When weather forecasters of today talk about the earliest existing weather records in the UK, they are generally referring to Dalton's records.

Through the instruments he created, John Dalton could study humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, and wind. He maintained these records for 57 years, until his death. Throughout those years, over 200,000 meteorological values were recorded. The interest he had in weather moved into an interest in the gases that make up the atmosphere. In 1803, Dalton's Law was created. It dealt with his work in the area of partial pressures.

The greatest achievement for Dalton was his formulation of the atomic theory. He was preoccupied with the atmospheric gases, however, and the atomic theory formulation came about almost inadvertently. Originally, Dalton was trying to explain why gases stay mixed, instead of settling out in layers in the atmosphere. Atomic weights were basically an afterthought in a paper he presented, and he was encouraged to study them further.

William Morris Davis

Noted meteorologist William Morris Davis was born in 1850 and died in 1934. He was a geographer and a geologist with a deep passion for nature. He was often called the "father of American geography." Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a Quaker family, he grew up and attended Harvard University. In 1869, he received his Master of Engineering degree.

Davis studied meteorological phenomena, along with geological and geographical issues. This made his work much more valuable in that he could tie in one object of study to others. By doing this, he was able to show the correlation between the meteorological happenings that took place and the geological and geographical issues that were affected by them. This provided those who followed his work with much more information than otherwise available.

While Davis was a meteorologist, he studied many other aspects of nature. Therefore, he addressed meteorological issues from a nature-based perspective. He became an instructor at Harvard teaching geology. In 1884, he created his cycle of erosion, which showed the way rivers create landforms. In his day, the cycle was critical, but in modern times it is seen as too simplistic.

When he created this cycle of erosion, Davis showed the different sections of rivers and how they are formed, along with the landforms that support each one. Also important to the issue of erosion is precipitation, because this contributes to runoff, rivers, and other bodies of water.

Davis, who was married three times during his life, was also very involved with the National Geographic Society and wrote many articles for its magazine. He also helped found the Association of American Geographers in 1904. Staying busy with science took up most of his life. He passed away in California at the age of 83.

Gabriel Fahrenheit

Most people know this man's name from an early age because learning to tell temperature requires learning about him. Even young children know that temperature in the United States (and in parts of the UK) is expressed in the Fahrenheit scale. In other countries in Europe, however, the Celsius scale is primarily used. This has changed in modern times, as the Fahrenheit scale was used throughout Europe many years ago.

Gabriel Fahrenheit was born in May 1686 and passed away in September 1736. He was a German engineer and physicist, and most of his life was spent working within the Dutch Republic. While Fahrenheit was born in Poland, his family originated in Rostock and Hildesheim. Gabriel was the eldest of the five Fahrenheit children who survived into adulthood.

Fahrenheit's parents passed away at an early age, and Gabriel had to learn to make money and survive. He went through business training and became a merchant in Amsterdam. He had a lot of interest in the natural sciences, so he started studying and experimenting in his spare time. He also traveled around a great deal, and finally settled in The Hague. There, he worked as a glassblower making altimeters, thermometers, and barometers.

In addition to giving lectures in Amsterdam on the subject of chemistry, Fahrenheit continued to work on developing meteorological instruments. He is credited for creating very precise thermometers. The first ones used alcohol. Later, he used mercury due to superior results.

In order for Fahrenheit's thermometers to be used, however, there had to be a scale associated with them. He came up with one based on the coldest temperature he could get in a laboratory setting, the point at which water froze, and the temperature of the human body.

Once he started using a mercury thermometer, he adjusted his scale upward to include the boiling point of water.

Alfred Wegener

Famous meteorologist and interdisciplinary scientist Alfred Wegener was born in Berlin, Germany in November 1880 and passed away in Greenland in November 1930. He was most famous for his theory of continental drift. Early in his life, he studied astronomy and received his Ph.D. in this field from the University of Berlin in 1904. Eventually, he became fascinated by meteorology, a relatively new field at that time.

Wegener was a record-holding balloonist and married Else Köppen. She was the daughter of another famous meteorologist, Wladimir Peter Köppen. Because he was so interested in balloons, he created the first balloons that were used to track weather and air masses. He lectured on meteorology quite often, and eventually, these lectures were compiled into a book. Called "The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere," it became a standard textbook for meteorological students.

In order to better study the circulation of polar air, Wegener was part of several expeditions that went to Greenland. At that time, he was trying to prove that the jet stream actually existed. Whether it was real or not was a highly controversial topic at the time. He and a companion went missing in November 1930 on a Greenland expedition. Wegener's body was not found until May 1931.

Christoph Hendrik Diederik Buys Ballot

C.H.D. Buys Ballot was born in October 1817 and died in February 1890. He was known for being both a meteorologist and a chemist. In 1844, he received his doctorate from the University of Utrecht. He was later employed at the school, teaching in the fields of geology, mineralogy, chemistry, mathematics, and physics until he retired in 1867.

One of his early experiments involved sound waves and the Doppler effect, but he was best known for his contributions to the field of meteorology. He provided many ideas and discoveries but contributed nothing to meteorological theory. Buys Ballot, however, seemed content with the work that he did to further the field of meteorology.

One of Buys Ballot's main accomplishments was determining the direction of air flowing within a large weather system. He also founded the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute and acted as its chief director right up until he died. He was one of the first individuals within the meteorological community to see how important cooperation on an international level would be to the field. He worked diligently regarding this issue, and the fruits of his labor are still evident today. In 1873, Buys Ballot became the chairman of the International Meteorological Committee, later called the World Meteorological Organization.

Buys Ballot's Law deals with air currents. It states that a person standing in the Northern Hemisphere with his or her back to the wind will find the lower atmospheric pressure to the left. Rather than try to explain the regularities, Buys Ballot spent most of his time simply making sure that they were established. Once they were shown to be established and he had examined them thoroughly, he moved on to something else, instead of trying to develop a theory or reason behind why they were so.

William Ferrel

American meteorologist William Ferrel was born in 1817 and died in 1891. The Ferrel cell is named after him. This cell is located between the Polar cell and the Hadley cell in the atmosphere. However, some argue that the Ferrel cell does not actually exist because the circulation in the atmosphere is actually much more complex than the zonal maps show. The simplified version that shows the Ferrel cell, therefore, is somewhat inaccurate.

Ferrel worked to develop theories that explained atmospheric circulation at mid-latitudes in great detail. He focused on the properties of warm air and how it acts, through the Coriolis effect, as it rises and rotates.

The meteorological theory that Ferrel worked on was originally created by Hadley, but Hadley had overlooked a specific and important mechanism that Ferrel was aware of. He correlated the motion of the Earth with the motion of the atmosphere in order to show that centrifugal force is created. The atmosphere, therefore, cannot maintain a state of equilibrium because the motion is either increasing or diminishing. This depends on which way the atmosphere is moving with regard to the Earth's surface.

Hadley had erroneously concluded that there was a conservation of linear momentum. However, Ferrel showed that this was not the case. Instead, it is the angular momentum that must be taken into account. In order to do this, one must study not just the movement of the air, but the movement of the air relative to the Earth itself. Without looking at the interaction between the two, the whole picture is not seen.

Wladimir Peter Köppen

Wladimir Köppen (1846-1940) was born in Russia but descended from Germans. In addition to being a meteorologist, he was also a botanist, geographer, and climatologist. He contributed many things to science, most notably his Köppen Climate Classification System. There have been some modifications made to it, but overall, it is still in common usage today.

Köppen was among the last of the well-rounded scholars that were able to make contributions of a significant nature to more than one branch of the sciences. He first worked for the Russian Meteorological Service, but later he moved to Germany. Once there, he became chief of the Division of Marine Meteorology at the German Naval Observatory. From there, he established a weather forecasting service for northwestern Germany and adjacent seas.

After four years, he left the meteorological office and moved on to fundamental research. Through studying the climate and experimenting with balloons, Köppen learned about the upper layers that were found in the atmosphere and how to gather data. In 1884, he published a climactic zone map that showed the seasonal temperature ranges. This led to his classification system, which was created in 1900.

The classification system remained a work in progress. Köppen continued to improve it throughout his lifetime, and he was always adjusting it and making changes as he continued to learn more. The first full version of it was completed in 1918. After more changes were made to it, the system was finally published in 1936.

Despite the time the classification system took up, Köppen was involved in other activities. He acquainted himself with the field of paleoclimatology as well. He and his son-in-law, Alfred Wegener, later published a paper entitled "The Climates of the Geological Past." This paper was very important in providing support to the Milankovitch Theory.

Anders Celsius

Anders Celsius was born in November 1701 and passed away in April 1744. Born in Sweden, he worked as a professor at Uppsala University. During that time, he also traveled a great deal, visiting observatories in Italy, Germany, and France. Although he was most noted for being an astronomer, he also made an extremely important contribution to the field of meteorology.

In 1733, Celsius published a collection of aurora borealis observations that were made by himself and others. In 1742, he proposed his Celsius temperature scale to the Swedish Academy of Sciences. Originally, the scale marked the boiling point of water at 0 degrees and the freezing point at 100 degrees.

In 1745, the Celsius scale was reversed by Carolus Linnaeus. Despite this, however, the scale retains Celsius' name. He performed many careful and specific experiments with temperature. Ultimately, he wanted to create scientific grounds for a temperature scale on an international level. In order to advocate for this, he showed that the freezing point of water remained the same, regardless of atmospheric pressure and latitude.

The concern with his temperature scale was the boiling point of water. It was believed that this would change based on latitude and the pressure in the atmosphere. Because of this, the hypothesis was that an international scale for temperature would not work. Even though it is true that adjustments would have to be made, Celsius found a way to adjust for this so the scale would always remain valid.

Celsius was ill from tuberculosis later in life. He died in 1744. It can be treated much more effectively in the modern era, but in Celsius' time, there were no quality treatments for the disease. He was buried in the Old Uppsala Church. The Celsius crater on the moon is named for him.

Dr. Steve Lyons

The Weather Channel's Dr. Steve Lyons is one of the most famous meteorologists in modern times. Lyons was known as The Weather Channel's severe weather expert for 12 years. He was also their tropical expert and an on-air fixture when a tropical storm or hurricane was brewing. He provided an in-depth analysis of the storms and severe weather that many of the other on-air personalities did not. Lyons earned his Ph.D. in meteorology in 1981. Before working with The Weather Channel, he worked for The National Hurricane Center.

An expert in both tropical and marine meteorology, Dr. Lyons has been a participant in over 50 conferences on weather, both on a national and an international level. Each spring, he speaks at hurricane preparedness conferences from New York to Texas. In addition, he has taught World Meteorological Organization training courses in tropical meteorology, ocean wave forecasting, and marine meteorology.

Not always in the public eye, Dr. Lyons has also worked for private companies and has traveled the world reporting from many exotic and tropical locales. He is a fellow in the American Meteorological Society and a published author, having more than 20 articles in scientific journals. In addition, he has created over 40 technical reports and articles, both for the Navy and for the National Weather Service.

In his spare time, Dr. Lyons works to create models for forecasting. These models provide a great deal of the forecasting that is seen on The Weather Channel.

Jim Cantore

StormTracker Jim Cantore is a modern-day meteorologist. His is one of the most highly-recognized faces in weather. While most people seem to like Cantore, they do not want him to come to their neighborhood. When he shows up somewhere, it is usually indicative of deteriorating weather!

Cantore seems to have a deep desire to be right where the storm is going to hit. It is obvious from his forecasts that Cantore does not take his job lightly. He has tremendous respect for the weather, what it can do, and how quickly it can change.

His interest in being so close to the storm comes mainly from his desire to protect others. If he is there, showing how dangerous it is, he hopes that he will be able to show others why they should not be there.

He is best known for being on-camera and involved with the weather from an up-close-and-personal standpoint, but he has made many other contributions to the field of meteorology. He used to be almost entirely responsible for "The Fall Foliage Report," and he also worked on the "Fox NFL Sunday" team, reporting on weather and how it would affect football games. He has a long list of extensive reporting credits as well, including working with the X-Games, PGA tournaments, and space shuttle Discovery launches.

He has also hosted documentaries for The Weather Channel and has does some studio reporting. The Weather Channel was his first job right out of college.

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Meet 10 Famous Meteorologists, Forecasters, and Weather Scientists

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Famous meteorologists include forecasters from the past, individuals from today, and people from all over the world. Some were forecasting weather before anyone even used the term " meteorologists." John Dalton was a British weather pioneer. Born September 6, 1766, he was most famous for his scientific opinion that all matter is actually made up of small particles.

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The first ever daily weather forecast printed appeared in the London Times Magazine in 1861.

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Meteorology means 'in the sky' and 'study', coming from the Greek words 'meteoros' and 'logia'.

Aristotle wrote about meteorology in approximately 350BC. He is considered by many to be meteorology's founder.

Theophrastus, another ancient Greek, wrote a book called The Book of Signs. It was a book about forecasting the weather.

The first daily weather forecast ever printed appeared in the London Times in 1861.

Meteorology is useful during forest fire seasons.

Many movies have been made with meteorology being the basis for the action. Some of these movies include Twister, The Day After Tomorrow, The Perfect Storm, and even Groundhog Day.

The wind, water vapor, air pressure and temperature changes are all studied to help make weather predictions.

Meteorologists mostly study the lowest part of the atmosphere, called the troposphere, as the higher layers only have minimal influence on the earth's surface weather. The higher levels tend to only influence the weather on earth's surface during extreme weather such as tornadoes and hurricanes.

Meteorologists gather information from weather satellites to make forecasts, but they also use simple instruments such as thermometers.

Some people believe that crickets can predict how strong a weather system is coming. The more frequent the chirps, the stronger the approaching weather.

Meteorologists can track weather and make predictions that can help to save lives. They are able to warn people of dangerous approaching weather, which can often help them to leave the area of prepare for the coming storm.

Meteorologists use computers to help them make both short and long term weather predictions.

Meteorologists do a lot of research about the earth's weather, including research into global warming, and how the weather is being affected by pollution.

Meteorologists also study tornadoes and hurricanes to help understand why they form.

Computers cannot do everything that meteorologists can do, so they cannot completely replace them. Humans are still needed to choose the best method of predicting weather.

To predict weather, a person must have pattern recognition skills, as well as knowledge of forecast model performance and biases, among many other things.

Even the stock market relies on weather predictions. Temperature and rain forecasts affect agriculture and therefore affect the value of commodities in the farming industry.

Air traffic controllers and crews rely on forecasts to help keep their passengers safe.

People that enjoy studying weather have many possible career opportunities, including becoming the Weather Man or Weather Girl on news channels.

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The scientific study of the atmosphere which allows for weather forecasting is called meteorology. Although the field has been studied for millennia, there were no real breakthroughs until the 1700s. In the second half of the 1900s, once the computer was invented, weather forecasting became more achievable.

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Meteorologists are important Because they help alert cities in town about their upcoming weather. For example, if there were no meteorologists, cities we're not know when the next rain storms are coming.  They would also not be able to prepare for natural disasters like tornadoes, because they would not know one was coming.

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Meteorology is important because of the impact of air conditions on life.

First of all weather forecasting has vital role in urban administration. Cities preparing extreme weather conditions such as tornadoes, snowstorms in order to prevent disasters.

Second, long term weather forecasting is important for agriculture. Drought can cause starvation. Meteorology is important for farmers since crops need water to grow up.

Meteorology is also important for both air and marine transportation. Windy weather effect planes and ships. Lightnings can be dangerous for planes. Sea waves give hard times to ships. Airports stop their operations and ships stay on harbors in extreme weather conditions.

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Why meteorology is important? | Socratic

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Meteorology is important because of the impact of air conditions on life. First of all weather forecasting has vital role in urban administration. Cities preparing extreme weather conditions such as tornadoes, snowstorms in order to prevent disasters. Second, long term weather forecasting is important for agriculture. Drought can cause starvation.

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What is the salary range for this career

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What is the salary range for this career

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$89,820 Yearly

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The average salary for a Meteorologist is $56,988.

Negotiate your pay with confidence

What Do Meteorologists Do?

A meteorologist makes observations and predictions about the weather. These predictions may be passed on to the general public or to clients in fields such as agriculture. The meteorologist will look over numerical and historical data, in order to make predictions. Observing the weather in real time is also often a part of the job.

The meteorologist will often have to present findings to an audience that is not familiar with technical terms, so it is important to be able to break down summarie

Describe, explain, and predict weather patterns to a variety of public audiences.

Identify weather data sources, collect data, merge, and clean data.

Create graphics and visualizations to explain weather patterns.

Analyze weather data and produce reports and interpretations.

Job Satisfaction for Meteorologist

Popular Employer Salaries for Meteorologist

The top respondents for the job title Meteorologist are from the companies National Weather Service, Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. and Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. Reported salaries are highest at National Weather Service where the average pay is $89,421. Other companies that offer high salaries for this role include Tribune Co and U.S. Air Force (USAF), earning around $70,468 and $55,421, respectively. Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. pays the lowest at around $32,000. Accuweather, Inc. and Universal Weather and Aviation, Inc. also pay on the lower end of the scale, paying $42,200 and $43,177, respectively.

Career Paths

Explore the most common career paths for Meteorologist. Thickness and color of lines indicates popularity of movement from one job to the next. Visit our career path planner to research other job paths.

Somewhat common (8 - 20%)

Meteorologist Job Listings

What Are Popular Skills for Meteorologists?

Skills in Data Modeling and Software Development are correlated to pay that is above average. Skills that pay less than market rate include Oral / Verbal Communication, Data Analysis and Forecasting.

What is the Pay by Experience Level for Meteorologists?

An entry-level Meteorologist with less than 1 year experience can expect to earn an average total compensation (includes tips, bonus, and overtime pay) of $41,285 based on 62 salaries. An early career Meteorologist with 1-4 years of experience earns an average total compensation of $48,159 based on 190 salaries. A mid-career Meteorologist with 5-9 years of experience earns an average total compensation of $61,556 based on 144 salaries. An experienced Meteorologist with 10-19 years of experience earns an average total compensation of $68,847 based on 115 salaries. In their late career (20 years and higher), employees earn an average total compensation of $79,997.

Pay Difference by Location

Employees with Meteorologist in their job title in New York, New York earn an average of 54.2% more than the national average. These job titles also find higher than average salaries in Atlanta, Georgia (38.8% more) and Denver, Colorado (4.9% more). The lowest salaries can be found in Norman, Oklahoma (27.6% less), Minneapolis, Minnesota (24.5% less) and Houston, Texas (13.3% less).

Years of Experience

This data is based on 596 survey responses.

Related Job Salaries

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The average salary for a Meteorologist is $56,988. Negotiate your pay with confidence A meteorologist makes observations and predictions about the weather. These predictions may be passed on to the general public or to clients in fields such as agriculture. The meteorologist will look over numerical and historical data, in order to make predictions.

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The main tools that I would use would be  thermometers, barometers, and anemometers for measuring temperature, air pressure, and wind speed, respectively.

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The five main places that I could work would be, TV/Radio stations, consulting businesses, educational facilities, the military, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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What is a Meteorologist?

A meteorologist is a specialized scientist who focuses on some aspect of the atmosphere, and who uses scientific principles to observe, understand and be able to explain or forecast how the earth's atmosphere affects the earth and everyone on it.

What does a Meteorologist do?

There are several specialized areas of study that meteorologist can be involved in:

Climate Meteorologists/Climatologists
- look at long term weather data and patterns from hundreds to millions of years ago in order to help predict future climate trends

Atmospheric Meteorologist
- study the atmosphere's motions and physical characteristics and how they could, or do affect the environment. They also apply their research to forestry, agriculture, global warming trends and air pollution control.

Operational Meteorologists
- study wind direction, wind speed, temperature, humidity and air pressure

Forensic Meteorologists
- investigate claims for insurance companies, and will research weather or past weather for a court of law

Broadcast Meteorologists
- interpret and report the weather and weather conditions for television and radio

Consulting Meteorologists
- are hired by large companies for consultation work

Synoptic Meteorologists
- develop new instruments and tools with computers and mathematical methods in order to forecast the weather in a more up to date manner

Physical Meteorologists
- study the physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere, and the transmission of sounds, light and radio waves through the air

Environmental Meteorologists
- study and report on ways to reduce air pollution, and contribute to the study of global warming and ozone depletion

Research Meteorologists
- typically work for different government agencies, the military, NASA, or the National Weather Service

Archive Meteorologists
- research and report on storms of the past

Meteorologists as Teachers / Professors
- share their knowledge as educators at a high school or university level

Are you suited to be a meteorologist?

Meteorologists have distinct personalities. They tend to be investigative individuals, which means they're intellectual, introspective, and inquisitive. They are curious, methodical, rational, analytical, and logical. Some of them are also enterprising, meaning they're adventurous, ambitious, assertive, extroverted, energetic, enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic.

Does this sound like you? Take our free career test to find out if meteorologist is one of your top career matches.

Take the free test now Learn more

What is the workplace of a Meteorologist like?

Weather is everywhere, and meteorologists can be found all over the world doing many different jobs. The five main places meteorologists work are for TV/Radio stations, consulting businesses, educational facilities, the military, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA).

Frequently Asked Questions

Steps to becoming a Meteorologist

The path to becoming a meteorologist starts with an interest in science; climate and weather; and the atmosphere. It continues with choosing high school courses that support this interest. And it culminates with university education that opens the door to career options.

What are Meteorologists like?

Based on our pool of users, meteorologists tend to be predominately investigative people. This finding is not unexpected. These professionals are frequently, if not always, in investigative mode, as they predict weather, scrutinize climate trends, study the atmosphere, and examine its effects on the environment.

Meteorologists work with a two-stage investigative model. First, they identify the initial state of the atmosphere, that is, the temperature, pressure, wind strength and direction, and humidity concentration over a specific area. They continuously make observations using ground-level sensors, satellites, radar, aircraft, and balloons.

Once they know the initial state at every altitude, they make calculations using physics equations relating to friction, atmospheric forces, thermodynamics, radiation, and the force of the Earth's rotation.

How long does it take to become a Meteorologist?

How long it takes to become a meteorologist depends on what kind of job you want. There are jobs available for those with only a bachelor's degree (four years), but most high level positions require at least a master's and research positions will require a PhD (another two to four years).

Should I become a Meteorologist?

Meteorologists need a very deep knowledge base on the workings of the physical world, so an innate curiosity and desire to learn is a must. Depending on their specialty, meteorologists may have to work nights and weekends and have strict deadlines to meet. Strong verbal and written communication skills are essential, as meteorologists often have to communicate complicated information in simple ways to non-meteorologists.

Different specializations require different skills and training. A TV weatherperson, for example, would need journalism or media education, while this would be unnecessary for someone in a research position. There are many different meteorology specializations, so if you enjoy the nature of the work it is likely that there is a specialization that works well with your personality.

All meteorologists use sophisticated technology on a daily basis. Depending on your specialization, this might mean launching weather balloons, modeling weather on a computer, or even developing new software. In any case, you should be confident and ideally enjoy working on a computer if you intend to be a meteorologist.

Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself if you are considering a career in meteorology:

 Am I curious about the world around me and why it is the way it is?  Would I like to work in a field of science that has many important applications in human affairs, such as warning others of hazardous weather or investigating the atmospheric forces that shape our weather and climate?  Am I challenged by the idea of applying basic scientific principles to understand the behavior of the atmosphere?  Am I intrigued by the concept of using mathematics as a language to describe things that happen in the world around me?  Do I enjoy science and math courses?  Would I like to work with supercomputers, satellites, and other sophisticated research tools?

Meteorologists are also known as:
Weather Forecaster Weathercaster Weatherman

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A meteorologist is a specialized scientist who focuses on some aspect of the atmosphere, and who uses scientific principles to observe, understand and be able to explain or forecast how the earth's atmosphere affects the earth and everyone on it.

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I would study the earth’s atmosphere. I would do this in order to forecast weather conditions.

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The education requirement is a 4-year, Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology or Atmospheric Sciences.

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Meteorology is a fun and exciting career choice! Meteorologists across the world get to predict some of mother nature's wildest weather. From hurricanes to tornadoes and from heatwaves to blizzards, this is one career choice that will keep you on your toes.

Meteorology is a tough college major. The courses are challenging, but with a little planning and dedication you can get through it. Your planning should start in high school. Meteorologists need to be good at math and science, so take all the courses that you can! If your school offers calculus and physics, take these two classes because they'll help you a lot once you get into college.

The basic requirement for becoming a meteorologist or a climatologist is a 4-year Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology or Atmospheric Sciences. Some teaching, research or management positions require a Masters of Science degree or a Ph.D.

Just to give you an idea, some of the classes that you'll be taking in college will be calculus, physics, dynamics, synoptics, and even computer programming courses. Meteorology is not an easy degree to get, but it one that is very worthwhile.

Whether you already know you want to become a meteorologist or if you're really not sure, the best thing you can do is to shadow or intern with local meteorologists. This is extremely important because it allows you to have a hands on approach and really get to see how we forecast the weather. Just a note, most internships aren't paid, but some of the forecasting techniques that you learn will be more valuable than money.

Here's some pictures that show you exactly what we do at the chrome-a-key wall. Click on the pictures to enlarge!

The top two pictures are of me at the chrome-a-key wall. This is the wall where I do the weather. There are monitors on both sides of the wall for me to look at.

The side picture is of my camera. This is the camera that you see me in, when you're watching TV at home. I see my reflection in this camera, so I know where to point.

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Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

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Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.

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Meteorology became popular in the 1800's and its father is considered to be Luke Howard.