Beneath the Clouds

Computer monitors.
That is how most atmospheric scientists see the subject of their careers. Across countless monitors flash high resolution satellite images of entire continents, data and maps just received from the latest computer model run, or maybe just some point observations. Your hometown, maybe even the state you live in might be represented by a single station model on a map or a handful of pixels on a satellite image. We atmospheric scientists sometimes have the rather unbecoming tendency to see weather at a large scale. Most of the time, weather appears as charts depicting the smoothed out distribution of parameters such as pressure or temperature. Even our computer models lead to disconnect; their resolution might be on the order of twenty or thirty miles, sometimes even more. All this can lead to the desensitization of what is actually happening on the ground. It can be all too easy to forget that below the anvils of supercells in an impressive squall line, there might be a tornado tearing through someone's house, or hail destroying a season's worth of crops. Tropical cyclones are even worse. Who could not marvel at a perfectly shaped spiral of brilliant white clouds spinning its way across the ocean? This is all perfectly fine when the cyclone is over open water, but what about when it makes landfall? Is the first thing that comes to mind that densely populated city on the coast in a country where people can't always afford the sturdiest of dwellings? A lot of people, including atmospheric scientists probably won't. This does not mean they're bad people; it’s just an unfortunate tendency of human behavior. On the other hand, those who study these various spectacles of weather should try to keep those affected firmly in mind. I myself am guilty of this sort of detached perspective; I might be mentally cheering on a storm, hoping to see it break some record, or become overly excited when I correctly forecast a storm. What it all boils down to is a reminder that when viewing a forecast made by a supercomputer or an image straight from the heavens, there are those beneath the clouds that might have a very different perspective on the weather.