The Weatherman. The Forecaster. The mighty titan of meteorology. This is a person with
the atmosphere at their fingertips. They possess a special talent for predicting the mightiest
and most unpredictable force on the planet. However, the man on the television is merely
a shadow of the man beyond it, this is his story. On a special Saturday, I was granted
access to the Temple of Temperature. One of the many things I wanted to know was the path
of the world. These magic men, they can take the world and condense it to fit on our television
screens. Of course, this process of magic and illusion is complicated, so I posed a
question of how mortal being puts on such a wizardly exhibition. My daily schedule includes
coming in at two o'clock in the afternoon, getting a sense of the weather, and then getting
on the computer talking to our producer and director and figuring out how we're going
to present the weather. And then I start working on all these graphics. After we do our mic
tests, then I come over to the set, and all these cameras are robotic. So a computer programmer
positions all the cameras upstairs, and they will follow each anchor to its position, based
on the rundown in the show. Now, once I do the weather, you can follow me over to the
green wall, and this is where I will head over. I'm actually off camera at this point,
because you see the weather graphics, and I walk over into my position in front of camera
four, and then I can start doing the weather by pointing in either direction. I have monitors
on either side of me. This is chroma key, so the camera, when it sees green, replaces
that green with computer graphics. So that's how the system works. And I'll turn it point,
and that's as close as I get to the green wall, so we don't cast a shadow, and that's
how I do the weather. With all this work that they conjure in the effort of teaming and
predicting the force of nature, I found they enjoy a great deal of respect.
It's harder for you, because you are critiqued every day on the validity of what you say.
I would say that having a weatherman is pretty much useless, because they're usually wrong
about the weather. Half the time when I listen to the weatherman, it's wrong, and some days
when I'm supposed to be dry, I get wet. It kind of makes me mad, so I just don't even
listen to them anymore. Most people say the weatherman can't get it right. So there's
already this connotation about the weatherman can't do his job, when in reality, weathermen
are unbelievable how accurate they are. What really happens in weather is you can be right
nine times in a row, and no one says boo, and when you're wrong on the tenth day, how come
you guys can't get anything right? So people only remember, usually, the incorrect forecast,
and we also joke just like in sports, you're only as good as your last forecast.
Of course, being a weatherman has its perks, but I was also shown the other side of this
mystical coin.
They can't make a mistake, you know, because our credibility relies on them being right,
so that's a lot of responsibility. That means you have to work incredibly hard to make sure
you're right.
Well, the hardest part is that you don't have holidays, you don't have weekends. You
know, news is 24-7, weather is 24-7, so you have to constantly adapt your schedule around
the weather.
I don't think people know how much time we put into preparing for even a single weather
cast. Everyone is not watching from start to finish, they may catch you in snippets
and only see you for three minutes here and two minutes there, and then they don't realize
you've been working an eight to ten hour day or maybe a 15 hour day during severe weather
just keeping track of everything.
It was an insightful journey through the halls of the mecha of meteorology, these legendary
magicians and fortune tellers spend days studying the greatest force, helping the little people
prepare for a threat.
They want us, they protect us.
Thank you.
