A hydrologist as a career option for a meteorologist?

19   Jan ,  2012 | 11
comments

 

You bet…it’s definitely a possibility!  Hydrologists and meteorologists work very close together, especially in the energy world.  In my previous post, I discussed why hydrologists are very important for west power trading.   In today’s post, I thought I would offer a more detailed perspective about the option of working as a hydrologist (in lieu of a meteorologist.)  My focus is going to be in the energy world…one of the sectors where I mentioned the future of meteorology will also reside.  I’ll also be highlighting the NW hydro operations in greater detail, too.

For an energy utility that owns and operates hydropower, the hydrologist would be forecasting inflows and helping to plan river operations and optimize storage for the water year (Winter-early spring). The meteorologists would help forecast precipitation, snow, temperatures – especially in the short term – which would be fed into a hydrologic model to generate streamflow forecasts.

These forecasts would then be fed into a reservoir operations model for the given hydro system. The reservoir operations model would then calculate river flows, storage use, reservoir levels, power generation, etc given operating constraints (fish flows, spill constraints, power prices, etc).

Also, there are many consulting firms that help utilities develop in-house models and systems. Most utilities develop streamflow and river models in-house, with assistance from engineering & consulting firms.

A hydrologist on an energy trade floor typically works on a much larger and less detailed scale. For example, they would be looking at the entire NW hydropower system rather than a specific plant. Their goal would be to understand the influence of hydropower on regional prices based on snowpack conditions, reservoir operations, etc.  Although one plant that does have a pretty significant influence is Grand Coulee (my photo above).  The Grand Coulee dam is based in the NW along the Columbia River and is the largest electric power producing dam in the United States.

Depending on the region and time of year, hydropower can have a small or large influence on market prices.    High impact seasons on market prices would be Winter and Spring…low impact seasons would be late Summer/mid-Fall.  And hydrologists would not only model, analyze and gather this information, but they would communicate it to traders as soon as new fundamentals are released.

Because the hydro system can be complex (due to many variables affecting the stream flow forecast), your communication skills need to be strong too.  In the NW, hydro forecasts can sometimes be as important (if not more important) than the weather itself for west power traders.

If all this is new to you, that’s okay.  It was all new to me too when I joined the west power trade floor in Portland, OR.  The hydrologist and I did work very close together because a lot of the “input” for these hydro models did come from the weather side.   Take a breather…and here we go.

Teleconnections such as PDO and ENSO have started to be modeled in longer term hydro forecasts.  Just like meteorologists try and forecast for upcoming seasons (or even 12 months ahead) by using teleconnections, analogs, and climatology, hydrologists also base their long term streamflow forecasts more or less on climatology too.

There is always a wide range of possibilities starting the water year – using ENSO/PDO helps tilt the odds only slightly in favor of wet/dry conditions.

And then as the season progresses, actual basin conditions become more important, especially when snowpack becomes the predominant storage mechanism.  And that’s a key time frame when meteorologists matter significantly.  Beyond 12 months, most would base assumptions almost entirely on historical record & climatology.

Also , the actual storage in reservoirs in any given basin will play a large or small part on the streamflow forecasts. Some reservoirs have multi-year storage while others only have week’s or day’s worth of storage and hardly impact future runoff.  And as you know from my previous post in West Power trading, predicting future runoff is one of the key variables for a West Power Trader.

Riverside Technology & 3 Tier are the 2 main vendors that I can think of that offer short, medium, and long term streamflow forecasts for the energy space (outside of the government).  Working at utilities and/or private energy companies like Iberdrola Renewables is another option for hydrologists.  Then of course you have your government agencies like NWRFC (Northwest River Forecast Center) and the Army Corps.

Hydrologist salaries in the energy world are generally in line with meteorologists overall. If you can combine hydrology + optimization/operations research + meteorology then you have a pretty unique combination of skills that is valuable to utilities. With those three skills, you could branch into many different industries too.

Bottom line, I know a lot of us want to be “forecasters” in the meteorology world…but with forecasting jobs so limited it’s good to think ‘outside the box’.  It could be worth exploring opportunities that are similar to meteorology like hydrology.  And getting further educated (with some internship experience) in hydrology too might not be a bad option.

And even better…if you can offer “meteorology” plus “hydrology” to an energy company or utility…you could make the case to the employer that you don’t need to hire two people and that you know both equally well (and/or you could be a back up to a hydrologist on staff in case they are sick).   Think about it.

Any other questions, comments, thoughts, perspectives…please feel free to use the comment box below.  (Photo credit:  Wikipedia)

Posted by: AJ · Categories: Energy · Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by AJ on January 19, 2012

  • Will

    In the U.S. National Weather Service, taking a hydrologist position can be viewed by some as taking a dead end road, especially if you end up at an River Forecast Center, since those positions don’t usually exercise the same forecasting “muscles” as other meteorologist jobs do. Knowing a lot about hydrology can definitely be an asset when it comes to successfully forecasting flooding in advance though.

  • Anonymous

    Interesting Will. Thanks for your perspective from the government side. I’m curious…how many hydrologists generally work at an RFC and how often do they interact with meteorologists? Is it mainly during a major event involving flooding or runoff or precip….or is it on a day to day basis?

  • Will

    In the NWS, there are 13 RFCs nationwide, and they each employ around 9-18 hydrologists each. Some of these hydrologists are in management positions, and at least a few RFC hydrologist positions are staffed basically by meteorologists. All the RFCs are currently co-located with NWS Forecast Offices, so they routinely interact with meteorologists in person and via the phone and/or Internet. There’s obviously more RFC staff interaction among the various NWS Forecast Offices during potential flooding situations. All the RFCs cover a large area that services at least several NWS Forecast Offices at once:
    http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/misc/data/minirfcmap.jpg

    Many (but not all) NWS Forecast Offices also have a Service Hydrologist on staff that serves as a focal point for hydrological issues. Each of the six NWS regional headquarters & the NWS’s main HQ in Washington, D.C. also have a few hydrologist positions, but they are mostly management positions.

  • Phillip Pasteris

    Way back in 1973 I was working on my M.S. in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. A former Air Force officer suggested I take a course in hydrology my spring semester. An NWS recruiter visited campus that spring and when I mentioned the course, he said “how would you like to work in an RFC this summer?” I thought “foot in the door,” and said “yes!”

    I fell in love with the computer river simulations and access to a CDC 6600 computer that would read all those punch cards! I went back to OU and took about 15 hours of civil engineering courses to supplement my meteorology. I was immediately offered a job at the Ft. Worth RFC when I graduated. It was the perfect mix. I understood weather and how to use a hydrologic model to forecast rivers when the precipitation hit the ground.

    Some 38 years later, I still use that mix to solve problems associated with climate change. I worked in three RFCs (Tulsa, OK, Ft. Worth, TX, Portland, OR), the USDA Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program, and now CH2M Hill, a private civil engineer firm.

    I have enjoyed it all and still use my RFC skills, accessing data on the Internet to provide clients with specialized products. We have come a long way from punch cards to the Internet. I now have a CYGWIN FORTRAN compiler on my laptop!! Amazing.

    Learn as much as you can, there are few excuses now with all the knowledge at your finger tips!

    P.S. I got to stand inside a de-watered turbine at Grand Coulee many years ago.

  • Thomas Pagano

    AJ,

    Interesting post… I was going to say that NRCS and Bonneville Power Administration are two other places that hire river forecasters, but I think Phil may have beat me to the punch. There’s other utilities like Salt River Project (SRP) in Arizona that do river forecasting (for water supply) and temperature forecasting (for power demand). Both NRCS and SRP have climatologists on staff as well.

    I highlighted your post at

    http://tompagano.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-forecasts-of-forecasts.html

    and talked some about my experience with water supply forecasts and trading markets. Big business from what I understood! When a senior person from a major bank cold-called me and asked “So! How’s the snowpack in California?”, I sensed I was talking with someone that made more money than I’ll ever know. This was only a couple years after drought in California was (partly) to blame for rolling blackouts and sky-rocketing prices.

    Keep up the good work

    Tom

    http://tompagano.blogspot.com/ – The River Seers

  • Thomas Pagano

    Will,

    Just curious, could you guesstimate the ratio of meteorologists to hydrologists in the National Weather Service? There’s 122 WFOs and 13 RFCs so, for the whole organization, is it about 10 to 1?

    Tom

    http://tompagano.blogspot.com – The River Seers

  • AJ

    Hey Thomas, thanks so much for your comment and for showcasing my blog on your own blog. I did read your article earlier today on your blog and thought you did a fantastic job. I’m at the AMS conference so I will discuss more about what you wrote with you in the next day or so.

    Thanks again.

    AJ

  • AJ

    Hey Phillip, thanks so much for sharing your journey with us. It was very inspiring and I hope a lot of meteorology students do take hydrology into consideration as a career option.

    Best-AJ

  • Will Murray

    There are 125 WFOs in the NWS, 21 Center Weather Service Units, and around 20 or so national centers. Each WFO has around 14-18 meteorologists on staff (with around 3 or so in management positions), and each CWSU has around 4 meteorologists on staff (with only one in a management position). The meteorologist staffing level at the NWS national centers (the Hurricane Center, the Storm Prediction Center, etc.) varies a lot from station to station. Many of the mostly management positions at the NWS’s 6 regional headquarters are also staffed by meteorologists as well.

    So, I would guess that the ratio of meteorologists to hydrologists in the NWS is somewhere between 6 & 12 to 1.

  • Anonymous

    Hey Tom, thanks for your comments and sorry for the delay in responding. I just got back from the AMS conference in New Orleans. I did see your blog and really appreciate you highlighting this post and asking for folks to subscribe. I thought you also did a great job explaining how the stock market, etc is relevant.

    Great job and thanks again!

    Best,

    AJ

  • Anonymous

    That’s awesome! That Grand Coulee experience must have been amazing! I appreciate you sharing your journey with us. I think what you did is exactly what many young professionals and graduates need to keep doing…”think outside the box”….and you clearly did!

    Best,

    AJ