Posted on 12/09/2014 5:55:20 PM PST by Hojczyk
Deep within a global operations nerve center in Memphis, a team of specially trained operatives scans data from nearly 200 countries, issues urgent “SNOCON” alerts and tracks a fleet of cargo jets via a glowing, wall-size “war board.”
Their mission? To make sure no “Frozen” doll is left behind.
They are corporate meteorologists, commanded to help keep hectic holiday shipments on time, snow or shine. And America’s shipping giants increasingly see them as a secret weapon, both in the fight against a brutal winter and in what could be the busiest online shopping season in history.
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.
Weather-watching has long been a key battleground for the international shipping elite: UPS launched its meteorology department 20 years ago after a surprise blizzard crippled the firm’s central air hub in Louisville. The teams nowadays work on 24-hour schedules, befitting the cargo world’s endless pace: One or more of UPS’s 237 cargo jets is flying at all times, and the company charters even more aircraft during winter to help with an average of 1,955 cargo flights a day.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Do they believe in “global warming”. What a sujective bunch they must be. Are they paid by the Feds to say the global warming is real?
A lot of companies contract this out to third-party meteorologists for real-time warnings. I became aware of one in central Oklahoma and worked with them on some training projects. I got to tour their facility. It turns out they gave a real-time warning to a railroad to stop a train short of running into the path of a deadly tornado in south-central Kansas. Had the train not been stopped, the damage would have been amplified by a derailment that involved hazardous materials.
My daughter will be a freshman meteorology student at Iowa State next fall:)
Hope she has an abiding love for calculus in its various forms. Congrats for being a parent to a budding scientist! I indulge the amateur meteorologist in me as a storm chaser and volunteer amateur radio net controller to take spotter reports in the Tulsa weather forecast office. Our storm season last spring was so slow I never got called in to run a spotter net. Usually I’m in for 2 or 3 storm systems.
Love is such a strong word:)
She is currently taking AP calc her senior year in high school and it seems to be going well. Fortunately she has an excellent teacher and in a pinch a dad who got his undergraduate degree in EE ( lucky for her I married him or she would be up the creek so to say:)
She has a back-up plan should she get sick of all that math.
“My daughter will be a freshman meteorology student at Iowa State next fall...”
GOOD school! At least it was in the 50’s and early 60’s. I am an ISU Alumni, class of ‘62 in Chemical Engineering.
(Now if we could just get the legislature to change the rules and allow both Iowa and Iowa State in the same conference...it would be nice to see them both in the B1G.)
FedEx snowcon. Deice 175 acft nose to tail. An experience.
FedEx snowcon. Deice 175 acft nose to tail. An experience.
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