Monica Long

Meteorologist
Bureau of Meteorology

Bachelor of Science

"My practical nature has led me to being involved in an operational forecasting environment rather than a research position."

I work for the Bureau of Meteorology as an operational forecaster in the Victorian Regional Forecasting Centre. This involves analysing the current weather situation and forecasting future weather on various timescales (from a few hours to a few days from the present). Preparing routine forecasts such as the Victorian State forecast are done on every shift but warnings are necessary at times when there is more significant weather such as a severe thunderstorm or strong winds on the coastal waters. In the Victorian Regional Forecasting Centre we are responsible for the public weather, marine weather, aviation weather, fire weather and severe weather that occurs anywhere in Victoria or the coastal waters of Bass Strait.

The main challenge of my job is to interpret the observations and computer model data and create a forecast that is easily understood by the users of that forecast. Another challenge arises when we receive conflicting model guidance and need to choose which forecast to follow.

The thing that I most enjoy about my job is the variability. One shift may involve timing a wind change across the state, another may involve tracking severe thunderstorms and issuing warnings for the regions affected and yet another may produce clear skies and lots of sunshine. When I walk in the door I never know exactly what will happen during the day.

I enjoyed being introduced to things that I hadn't really thought too much about before. For example the connections between different parts of the world through atmospheric teleconnections and various cosmological theories. I also liked that Atmospheric Science was a joint discipline between the maths and geography areas. I could find out about the physical phenomenon in the geography lectures and then find out how to represent it in mathematical form. I must admit however, that I'm a more practical than theoretical person.

My studies have influenced my career by encouraging me to discover more about the field of atmospheric and related sciences (even if it's just websearching in my spare time). My practical nature has led me to be involved in an operational forecasting environment rather than a research position.