Meteorologist

Imagine it is a warm, humid summer day. From your office window, you can see children playing in the park. But you know this scene will change in the next few days. You are a meteorologist and right now you are watching real-time satellite images of Hurricane Emily. You can see she is crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and your Nova Scotia weather observation office and this little park is in the middle of her path, along with thousands of other homes and businesses.

You and your team of meteorologists are about to kick into high gear and begin issuing hurricane warnings to the area. You want to give residents enough time to prepare for the storm and evacuate to safer locations if necessary. The city and its industries also need time to prepare for the hurricane in order to take the necessary precautions to avoid the potential for environmental catastrophe that comes with high winds and damaging debris. As a meteorologist, you have been tracking Hurricane Emily for days now, starting from when she first appeared on satellite images as a swirl of cloud thousands of kilometres off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean. You've watched her gain strength and pick up speed as she heads toward the United States coast.

In collaboration with other weather offices in Canada and the United States, your team has been gathering data to try to predict when and where Hurricane Emily will make landfall. You've looked at prevailing wind patterns for this time of year, current wind velocity and direction, air pressure and temperature isoclines, and the strength of Emily herself. You are confident she will first make landfall on the American coast, but her direction and strength indicate she will travel overland north to Nova Scotia to batter Canada's eastern coast.

Right now, you are looking for any indication that something might change and divert Emily, and if not, you want to know just how bad it will be. You need to let residents know if they will be safe in their homes or if they should evacuate, as well as let the city know the precautions it must take, for example protecting freshwater supplies and treatment systems or shutting off gas lines to avoid leaks and explosions. You and other meteorologists will spend the next few days gathering all the data you can in order to better predict and prepare for the onslaught of Emily.