Question regarding grad school and being a TV Met

[capegurl07]

Hello, everyone,

I am currently in the middle of a weather forecasting internship in Cleveland, OH and while I went into the internship thinking that being a TV Met was never for me, I will be leaving it wanting to become one. That said, I had the intention of going on to graduate school so I can further my education of meteorology (especially about thermodynamics, atmospheric physics/chemistry, and synoptic/dynamic meteorology) so I can work for NWS or the SPC at some point (obviously after obtaining my PhD). My question is that do you think it is feasible for me go straight into grad school and then work as a TV Met, and then get my PhD, or do you think it is doable to go to grad school part time and work as a TV Met part time as well? I do hope this type of question is allowed, and I assume there are TV Mets on this site that could offer some insight about my situation. I just want to be able to alert people about what is going on in the weather (especially if I hired in at a station in the dead center of Tornado Alley), and I'm just not sure if I could have that same pride that I saved lives by alerting them that an EF4 was upon them if I was working at SPC in Norman.

Thanks!

 

[Jeff Snyder]

It sounds like you already have a B.S. in meteorology. Is this correct?

Just for the record, the vast majority of NWS and SPC forecasters do not hold a PhD. From an operational standpoint, it's not necessary. There does seem to be an increasing number of NWS and SPC personnel with Masters degrees, but that may be the result of trying to gain a competitive advantage since there are many more applicants than there are job openings. That said, I think there's value in getting a graduate degree if you want to become a forecaster -- taking Computer Fluid Dynamics, Objective Analysis, Advanced Synoptic Meteorology, Advanced Mesoscale Meteorology, and other grad courses (these are common grad courses for OU grad students, and I suspect the same is true for most other grad schools) gives you knowledge that I'd think would be useful to a forecaster. All of this said, I am not a forecaster, and I do not work for NOAA.

The path of getting an M.S., going into the work force as a TV met, and going back to grad school for a PhD (which is a lengthy process, mind you) doesn't seem to be very common/popular. Certainly, you can give it a try, but I don't personally know of anyone who has gone that route. In addition, I'm not sure that getting a PhD help much if you want to become a TV/media met -- I'm not sure that'll be seen as an asset enough to compensate for the time and effort you'll spend getting a PhD. There are some PhD-holding TV meteorologists, but the number is very limited. I know we have at least one TV met on here that may chime in, though I haven't heard from him in awhile. My understanding is that most TV mets have to open to taking a job in middleofnowhere America before slowly climbing the latter into bigger markets (with some exceptions obviously), though I also know that it's an extremely competitive field.

The primary "reason" to get a PhD is if you want to go into research and/or teaching at the college level. There is a skill set required for successful research, and you learn and/or sharpen these skills when you work on your MS and PhD degrees. If you do a cost/benefit analysis, I think an M.S. would be sufficient if you want to become an NWS forecaster, and it seems as though "only" a B.S. is really necessary for media meteorologists (I write "only" not to diminish the work it takes to get a B.S. in meteorology but, rather, to denote that advanced degrees aren't common). I know some TV "weatherpeople" who aren't even degreed meteorologists (their degree is in geography, communications, etc.).

If it means anything, and this is very speculative, I have to think that there will be significant consolidation of NWS offices in the coming years. As numerical weather prediction and remote sensing improves, along with federal budgetary pressures, I think many NWS offices are going to be consolidated into regional offices. This really isn't the best thread to discuss this, and I have no "inside knowledge", but it's something that has influenced my decision to continue onward towards my PhD.