On Friday, March 1st, I had the pleasure of speaking to four classes of students at East Cary Middle School’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Career Day. I appreciated the invitation and really enjoyed the chance to interact with the students and answer questions about being a meteorologist.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank them for their hospitality and share some of the questions and answers from that day.
Q. Are there any physical hazards to your job?
A. Not unless you count getting a little stiff from sitting at a computer all day.
Q. Do you have to have any special talents to do your job?
A. You have to be good at math, science, and writing, which are all included in your education. I’m not sure if it counts as a special talent, but you need a sense of humor and thick skin, especially if you’re a broadcast meteorologist or work at the National Weather Service. Lots of fun gets poked at weather people when the forecast isn’t perfectly right.
Q. Do you know…? (Fill in names of local television meteorologists.)
A. Yes, I do know most of them.
Q. Why didn’t it snow last Friday?
A. Because the temperature didn’t get cold enough to snow for a long enough period for the rain to turn to snow. It was only at 32 degrees for about a half-hour.
Q. The News & Observer has a meteorologist?
A. Yes, they do, and I’m here to answer your questions in my blog, Clear Weather. Please, send me questions about the weather!
Like most meteorologists, Niki Morock has been interested in weather since she was a child. After earning a bachelor’s degree in meteorology from N.C. State University in 2007, Niki moved to Minnesota and worked at Weather Eye Radio Network as a broadcast meteorologist, doing daily, live call-ins to morning radio show hosts across the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains and covering severe weather as it happened. While there, she also volunteered as a Skywarn storm spotter trainer, teaching civilians and first responders how to identify parts of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes and how to call in storm reports to the National Weather Service. Niki is now the vice president of the Central North Carolina Chapter of the American Meteorological Society and a member of the national American Meteorological Society.