“I grew up in western Virginia, not in the tropics by any stretch, so I was sort of interested in snow and winter weather, and hurricanes were a fascination at an early age,” says Michael Brennan, Branch Chief of the Hurricane Specialist Unit at the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The NHC is a division of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/ National Weather Service and is responsible for tracking and predicting tropical weather systems and patterns.

Michael’s role as he describes it involves “supervising hurricane forecasters, overseeing the day to day forecast operations, and everything from policy decisions to real-time forecast decision-making coordination of storm watches and warnings.”

Additionally, he also provides briefings for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other meteorological services. “It’s an all-encompassing job!” he exclaims with enthusiasm and a smile.

“I went to study meteorology at North Carolina State University, and then went on to graduate school and did my PhD there as well,” Michael says of how his interest in weather drove his education in this field.

“Interestingly my PhD was not in anything related to tropical storms or hurricanes, but I was looking at the mid-latitude cyclones and wintertime storms. I ended up coming here to the hurricane center after graduate school as a post doc working on satellite ocean wind data, and how it was used in the marine and the optical cyclone operations here.”

Given that it’s a highly technical field in atmospheric sciences, Brennan cites having a strong educational background in math and science, mainly physics, calculus, and chemistry, as requisite to work as a meteorologist.

“It’s a growing profession,” states Michael of atmospheric sciences and meteorology. “For a long time there were very limited career pathways. You could go work for the National Weather Service as a government forecaster, or you could go into broadcast meteorology working in television and media. With a PhD you could go into academia or research either for the government or an institution.”

Now, Brennan says there are “more sort of weather adjacent career paths,” as he refers to them. “There is so much more we can do now as weather forecasters,” he emphasizes. “We are now able to work in fields such as insurance, airlines, cruise ships, agriculture and so many more industries. There is an explosion of opportunity especially in the private sector.”

Michael cites a few but he says communication and people skills are essential in the field of meteorology. “About 20-30 years back, weather forecasters were able to just sit down, create their forecast and make it available for people to use and that was it,” he remembers. “But now there’s more of an emphasis on translating and explaining those forecasts to people so that they can make weather-related decisions.”

“We call it impact-based decision support services. For example, during a hurricane we do briefings for state emergency managers who might be making decisions about where to deploy resources.”

“We explain the forecast we put out, discuss the uncertainty and what options they should consider, and we answer any questions and concerns, so it’s very interactive. Communicating efficiently and effectively to other scientists, decision makers, and others who may not have a scientific background is crucial,” Brennan underscores while pointing to an upcoming weather forecast on his computer screen. “You have to be able to communicate in different levels of language and in different ways,” he stresses further.

Although many people working in meteorology like Michael are in fairly invisible roles as not all are on TV or have public facing roles, he says, just knowing that the work they do is important and makes a difference especially in decision making where life and safety are concerned. “The work we do is important, and we see it every day,” he confidently asserts.

Through work with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) for hurricane forecasts, technology and modelling come into play in terms of sharing information on storm surge information in various countries in real time. Brennan explains that there is more work underway to improve the technology and modelling for this important service.

As a father hopes his son, in elementary school, will be able to find stability in a career path that interests him. “Things keep changing quickly and there is so much moving around from position to position,” he notes with an element of concern in his facial expression. “While it gives people freedom there is also so much uncertainty and instability.”

“The most important advice I can think of to give him is to have a wide and varying skill set and to be flexible, while following the things he is interested in,” Brennan shares. “But he must be prepared to be malleable because his career is probably going to change a lot in his lifetime,” he says with a knowing smile.

If there is one thing Michael has seen and experienced in his weather career it is how quickly things can change, from certain to uncertain, and how being flexible and having an appetite for lifelong learning and skills development can keep you in your field of interest.