RIGHT AS RAIN

Working in weather proved to be the perfect path for meteorologist Corine Brown, who uses maths and data every single day

Corine has always loved science, but in high school her interests expanded to include music, art and drama too.

“I wanted to be everything,” she says. “My teenage dreams boiled down to being an astronomer, chasing tornadoes like Helen Hunt in Twister and being a successful musician!”

Eventually, Corine jumped on a STEM path, completing a Bachelor of Science (Astronomy / Astrophysics, Climate Science) and a Master of Research (Mars Climatology) at Macquarie University. She is now a meteorologist and forecast systems developer at Weatherzone.

The maths in meteorology

For her job, Corine assesses weather risks such as heavy rainfall (number of millimetres in a period of time), damaging winds (usually gusts exceeding 80 km/ hr) and snowfall (number of centimetres in 24 hours).

“Doing this requires assessing and interpreting data output from a number of numerical weather prediction models,” she explains.

She’s also part of the forecast systems development team working on testing and implementing a new ocean wave model that will output spatial plots and time-series data for significant wave height, peak wave period, peak and mean wave direction, and swell and wind wave data around Australia and other locations. Her study and career journey hasn’t been without its challenges, not the least of which has been managing a debilitating chronic illness (narcolepsy). But Corine says working on weather and climate models is great, and that coding always makes her feel a bit like Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park

“Any big weather event always gets me excited, although the impact that our work has on people isn’t lost on me,” she says.

She also loves that her weather risk analysis work can help facilitate optimised usage of solar and wind power for some of her biggest business clients and the general public.

“Being part of the renewable energy revolution helps me feel like I’m doing something of substance to avert the climate crisis.” – Louise Meers