Voyager

4 hours ago, canderson said:

Two things:

1) our friend Steve (@Voyager) is having thyroid surgery tomorrow. He could use good thoughts.

2) Might want to keep an eye on Florence in the Atlantic. Got a bad feeling about her,.

Just saw this. Thanks!

As for Florence, I'd think her high latitude is going to make things interesting. She's way north (23.4n vs <20n) of where she should be to be a legitimate threat. But if there's one thing we learned this past year or so is that what should happen (re-curve and a fish storm) may not be the actual end result. Still a long way out, but the WAR has been a major player this spring and summer, and she could just keep heading toward the coast under the right conditions.

Congrats to you, your nephew. and the team on a great accomplishment!

Maybe not in Tamaqua. But it's raining here in SW PA.

I just notice that on the radar. Wow. DC is ripping snow and you are getting rain. This is the most unbelievable winter I've ever seen...

Today's 12z GFS is further NW. We get a rainstorm book ended with bitter cold, not even a decent front end dump. If that is what happens I'll be in line with those begging for the pattern to break down even if it means an end to winter. This has been one of the most frustrating winters in awhile. At least the mild ones you know you don't have much of a chance. It's getting towards the time in the year that these little 1-2 inch deals aren't that enjoyable, although the squall was awesome. With the sun it just melts or sublimates away.

And as it turns out, it wasn't warmth and rain we had to worry about...

It's not though. that's the thing. You are right that in most fields its challenging finding a job, especially today, but when most people complain that it took them 6 months of a year or whatever to find a job, they weren't even looking far outside of the area where they live.

With meteorology its almost a gaurentee you'll have to move but even with this mindset it's still almost impossible finding a job even after opening up your job search nation wide. Also, I don't know of any other field requiring a similiar level of education that has salaries starting in the 20-25 k range. I challenge anyone to name one.

While this may be true, for some people it's just not possible to look outside the region where they live. Take me for example. If I were in a career where it would be likely I'd have to move to get a job, since my wife WILL NOT leave the region, I'd either be jobless or divorced.

The oversupply of qualified meteorologists has drastic consequences that go far beyond the difficulty of simply finding a job. If you are lucky enough to break into the field you will have to go wherever the job takes you since few are fortunate enough to get enough offers allowing them to be choosy. The 2^nd major thing is salary and work environment. The oversupply has driven salary levels down to obscenely low levels. Since NWS jobs are incredibly competitive to get (only about 40 openings a year and hundreds of job seekers) most are forced to obtain employment in the private sector where starting salaries are in the 21-25 k range. I can tell from experience that in the early 2000s, $20,000 / year was a common number. What’s more, raises are often very small and if you do manage to last long enough to climb close to 30 k, you will have a high risk of being laid off unless you have well above average forecasting skills as companies prefer the cheap labour they can get from eager and willing new grads. Since the private companies have so much leverage over employees due to the oversupply, the workload and the work environment is extremely demanding. Why? They can get away with it because if you quit you are easily replaceable!

If this weren't a weather board I'd swear you were talking about truck driving. What you described is almost dead-on in the transportation field as well.