Isaac or not, the business of weather is booming
Kai Ryssdal: Isaac is now officially a hurricane, headed for the coast of Louisiana sometime tonight. So weather forecasts and weather people are getting a whole lot of screen time right now.
But that’s only one part of the weather industry working overtime. Marketplace’s Eve Troeh reports.
Eve Troeh: For New Orleans, there’s still only one — and he was the best: WWL’s Nash Roberts.
Nash Roberts (archived tape): The people east of the river are having high tides now and it’ll continue to rise.
With just a map and a black marker, he tracked hurricanes with a calm, even tone. No graphics, no drama.
Nash died in 2010. Right now on Twitter, you can read posts like these: “I wish Nash Roberts could send us a magic marker forecast from heaven.” Or “All these spaghetti models tell me is that I really miss Nash Roberts.”
But TV was just one part of Roberts’ job. For more than 50 years, he also predicted weather for oil and gas companies. Private weather consulting is a vast part of meterology that, even during a hurricane, the public doesn’t see.
Sara Croke runs a forecasting firm out of Kansas City.
Sara Croke: Weather or Not Incorporated.
Companies hire her to tell them if they should send home their construction crews. Or, if the Royals have a home game:
Croke: Is the rain a delay or a showstopper?
I asked Palm Beach weather consultant David Spiegler if private clients get to know more than the public.
David Spiegler: Well they don’t get a better picture of where the landfall of a storm is going to be, but they do get a better picture of how it’s going to affect them.
If the National Weather Service is like a daily horoscope, a private weather service is like a tailored reading just for you. Businesses pay for the minute-to-minute details most people don’t care to know.
William Brune heads the Meteorology Department at Penn State. Undergrads there can study meteorology for business.
William Brune: They learn about economics, finance, risk. So they can talk to MBAs and work with them in a team.
So instead of heading to the weather service, or following in the footsteps of great weathermen like Nash Roberts, more meteorologists find themselves doing weather for the bottom line.
I’m Eve Troeh for Marketplace.
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