Journal #14 - Hello? Is there anybody out there?

Here’s one of the biggest drawbacks about meteorology – there simply aren’t a lot of meteorologists. Only a few hundred students graduate with meteorology degrees each year, and even then, not all of these graduates go on to actually go into meteorology. Not to mention that the meteorologists that do work in weather forecasting tend to live in and around cities and universities (to either reach the greatest number or people or do research). Unfortunately, here in southwest Connecticut, we lack large cities (500,000+) and universities that study and do research in the atmospheric sciences and meteorology. This made for some great difficulties in finding a local expert to sit on my panel and evaluate my presentation. No school parents had any real involvement in meteorology, and the alumni office seemed to be lost to find anyone who was in meteorology. Even when I asked the science teachers, their contacts had no desire to participate on the panel – they were either too busy or didn’t feel like wasting their time. There are no meteorology universities near our area – the closest are Cornell (4 hours), MIT (3 hours), or Penn State (5 hours), and I doubt a researcher would be willing to drive all the way to see my small presentation. Most broadcast meteorologists are working or live in New York City – and are most likely too busy to participate on a panel. And the closest office for the National Weather Service is located in Upton, New York – a significant distance away, and most of the people working for the NWS would be working when my presentation is scheduled to be. Where does this leave me? Hopefully I’ll get lucky. Hopefully one person will be able to spend some time for my presentation.