Mar 18, 2026 · 57 min · 12 segments
Dan Harris is a chief meteorologist at the UK Met Office - https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ See him talking weather equations on Numberphile - https://youtu.be/YmZiq00CO60 Dan's websites…
Dan HarrisGuest
Brady HaranHost
Someone who's good at this job, you know, and has success, what are they good at? What are the two or three skills and attributes that make someone good at the job? You said you got daunted by some of the mathematics in the second or the third year.
Do you need to be good at mathematics? Do you need to be good with computers? What are the skills that make someone a really good forecaster, a really good meteorologist?
And in some ways, it does depend on which career path you take within the Met Office or within meteorology more generically.
If you want to, for example, go into the science side of things, developing the model or research, then you have to
The model is this sort of, you know, is the computer, the algorithms and that, that actually spit out data.
So you input the satellite data, the observational data, you crunch the numbers using a set of equations and you come out with the forecast numbers.
The forecasting side of things, it helps to be good at the maths because it gives you a deeper appreciation, I think, of some of the physical processes that go on.
And that means when you're looking at weather data, looking at weather models, you can more easily conceptualise what that means for reality and how those things develop.
But I wouldn't say it's a necessary requirement because, and this is how, when you go back to the early days of forecasting, and certainly you've talked about the Second World War, you know, there wasn't a training program for meteorologists then.
It was, you know, very basic training and then chucked in at the deep end and you had to learn through experience.
In the early days of forecasting, before you had lots of help with model output and things like that, the more experience you had, the better forecast you become because you see the patterns clearly.
And through knowledge of the patterns, you can then develop an appreciation of how the physical processes work.
So some sort of mix of mathematics, passion for the weather, I would say an interest in a passion for the weather, or at least some kind of seed of one that can develop into a passion as you get into the job.
Someone who's good at this job, you know, and has success, what are they good at? What are the two or three skills and attributes that make someone good at the job? You said you got daunted by some of the mathematics in the second or the third year.
Do you need to be good at mathematics? Do you need to be good with computers? What are the skills that make someone a really good forecaster, a really good meteorologist?
And in some ways, it does depend on which career path you take within the Met Office or within meteorology more generically.
If you want to, for example, go into the science side of things, developing the model or research, then you have to
The model is this sort of, you know, is the computer, the algorithms and that, that actually spit out data.
So you input the satellite data, the observational data, you crunch the numbers using a set of equations and you come out with the forecast numbers.
The forecasting side of things, it helps to be good at the maths because it gives you a deeper appreciation, I think, of some of the physical processes that go on.
And that means when you're looking at weather data, looking at weather models, you can more easily conceptualise what that means for reality and how those things develop.
But I wouldn't say it's a necessary requirement because, and this is how, when you go back to the early days of forecasting, and certainly you've talked about the Second World War, you know, there wasn't a training program for meteorologists then.
It was, you know, very basic training and then chucked in at the deep end and you had to learn through experience.
In the early days of forecasting, before you had lots of help with model output and things like that, the more experience you had, the better forecast you become because you see the patterns clearly.
And through knowledge of the patterns, you can then develop an appreciation of how the physical processes work.
So some sort of mix of mathematics, passion for the weather, I would say an interest in a passion for the weather, or at least some kind of seed of one that can develop into a passion as you get into the job.
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