Are you frustrated with inadequate weather forecasts? Me too! See I’m not one to stand behind outdated forecasting practices and satisfied with excuses like “it’s not an exact science.” The technology available to meteorologists today is unlike any in history. I feel expectations for better weather forecasts is understandable and realistic.
I did my time learning meteorology at York University, and a tour of the Environment Canada cubicle farm sent me in a direction away from the rigour and cookie-cutter approach to becoming a meteorologist in Canada. I spent years in the real world making real decisions based on weather forecasts and learned that my job and money required a higher quality weather service than what was available privately. Along came the world wide web and my foray into learning operational meteorology one forecast at a time.
Many years of forecasting experience and a laptop computer made me lean, mean and knew how to use publicly available weather data to generate the best forecast, using the best practices for high-risk decisions. Fortunately for me, I caught the attention of a government emergency services manager, and I was poised to see what I could do with the resources of the largest emergency management weather service office in Canada.
I now find myself thirty years into a career that has evolved further with a diploma from Mississippi State University and experiences in forecasting for everything from the Fort McMurray fire to Hurricane Sandy. My experience outside the mainstream weather community taught me what is possible from hard work and how to find opportunities for improvement in the use and direction of resources.
In other words; I find efficiencies in weather services and know how to implement the latest meteorological techniques to provide forecasts that protect lives and property. I understand that change in a weather office is not bad – it is required for success.
Join me on my ShieldsWeather site for discussions on weather services and ideas for how we can do better. I believe firmly in collaborative efforts and breaking down the establishment that has ‘always done it this way.’ Meteorology is an exact science, so let’s stop making excuses and be real about what can be done to take weather services to the next level.
Please follow me on;
Twitter @ShieldsWeather
and LinkedIn
Or feel free to email me at
