“Someone awaiting a package in Bangkok doesn’t care if it snowed in Louisville, Kentucky,” said Randy Baker, a senior meteorologist for UPS Airlines. “They want their stuff.”
Some meteorologists help big retailers, including Wal-Mart and Home Depot, prepare for emergencies and know what to stock. But shipping weather-watcher work can prove far more complex, with forecasters helping reroute jets around rough weather; mobilize deicing and refueling crews; and prepare pilots for the worst of fog, frost and potentially million-dollar delays.
The largest shipping firms’ top meteorologists are a motley crew of Air Force veterans, experienced forecasters and part-time storm chasers, many of them weather nerds who can trace their love of sky-watching back to a seminal childhood blizzard, hurricane or act of God.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member