Sunny Skies

Rachel | future meteorologist

With my future in Meteorology, it's all sunny skies for me. I'm Rachel, and I want to be a meteorologist. I have wanted to be a meteorologist since I was in the third grade. I want to be a meteorologist because I love weather! I love to learn about it and always look for more ways to do that.

I previously attended a week-long summer Mesonet Weather Camp at the University of Oklahoma, and I am hoping to attend more meteorology and weather science camps in the future.

My parents took me back to OU on October 31 to celebrate the National Weather Festival. It was fun, and I got to see them launch several weather balloons. I also got to meet the meteorologists from the local television stations and pretend to do the TV news weather myself in front of a green screen.

The education required to be a meteorologist is a Bachelor's Degree in Meteorology. I have to study a lot of math and science. Recently I have been considering having a goal of a Master's Degree. I found some Meteorology textbooks at the used-book store and have been reading them at home for fun. I enjoy checking my rain gauge, and my dad and I are making plans to build our own weather tower in the back yard.

Meteorologists have many different tasks. They can be on the television news to inform people about current and coming weather or they can stay behind the scenes and make the calculations for the predictions. Some meteorologists fly into hurricanes and chase storms to study them. Although those tasks can be exciting, I want to be a NASA meteorologist so I can study all kinds of changes in the atmosphere.

I will have opportunities for this job in the future when I go to Texas A&M and earn my Meteorology degree. I predict a sunny future in Meteorology!