A master's or doctoral degree is usually required for teaching and research positions. Students can also prepare by getting a degree in engineering and taking courses in meteorology. Some colleges offer a degree program in meteorology. To get a job outside the armed services, however, candidates need a bachelor's degree. Education and Training RequirementsĪrmed services personnel may be trained on the job to gather and process data. Their research may lead to improved long-distance communication. Physical meteorologists, for example, study the chemistry of the atmosphere or the way radio waves pass through it in different kinds of weather. Some branches of meteorology deal with other aspects of the atmosphere. They may study fossils and tree rings to find out what the weather was like many hundreds of years ago. Their goal is to predict slow changes in the climate that might affect food production or ocean temperatures.

A number of them work in planes and on ships.Ĭlimatologists are meteorologists who are interested in long-term changes in the weather. Others run weather stations in remote areas throughout the world.

Some meteorologists who are involved in forecasting are employed in metropolitan areas near large airports. In return, they receive charts, maps, and diagrams that help them to predict the weather in their locale. Usually they feed their information into a computer. Some meteorologists use photographs and data from satellites to predict the weather. They use instruments to measure the temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, rainfall, and air quality. Often they are concerned with the weather in a specific geographic area.

Synoptic meteorologists gather and interpret data in order to forecast weather.

Average weatherman salary