It’s always been Michaela Wood’s plan to be a meteorologist. She started by watching YouTube videos when she wanted to understand the weather. She went to college and was a student researcher at The TORUS project (Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells), which involved more than 50 scientists and students deploying a broad suite of cutting-edge instrumentation into the Great Plains. She is now a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
“There were a couple options when I started college on what exactly I wanted to do,” said Wood. “I knew I didn’t want to be in broadcast meteorology. I wasn’t big on cameras; I wanted to work for the public and do research.”
The mission at the National Weather Service is protection of life and property. They do not consider themselves First Responders, yet they maintain a goal of keeping people safe. The Science and Operations Officer at the National Weather Service, Brian Barjenbruch, is also a professor at UNL in the Meteorology department.
“Working at the National Weather Service is a 24/7, 365 operation,” Barjenbruch said. “Our tornado outbreak last April was a stressful situation. Michaela is a valuable member of our team and has grown into her role quite well. She can turn this career into whatever she wants it to be. She’s a skilled meteorologist and great to work with. There are various career paths in this field that she could find herself in. I also wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up running a National Weather Service office one day.”
Even when not at work, Wood is on the RadarScope app checking weather events happening across the country. When hurricane Beryl made landfall, she watched the radar knowing that sometimes if the environment is right, multiple tornadoes have the potential to spin up when these hurricanes make landfall.
“I’m working on getting my masters thesis published, which is kind of not what you would expect someone who’s lived in Nebraska to publish,” she said. “My thesis is on those tornadoes and those kinds of storms that spin up and land due to tropical cyclones. I spent time looking at different radar characteristics of those storms and comparing them to a typical storm that’s not involved in the tropical cyclones.”
Those storms that pop up in tropical cyclones are usually small and called “supercells.” Not much research has been done to look at the tornadic versus the non-tornadic storms radar characteristics, but Wood began this research as an employee at the National Weather Service.
When putting out tornado warnings, the service wants to keep the amount of false alarms as low as possible, but in storms like these, it can be tricky because they’re very small and short-lived. It can be challenging to predict exactly which ones are going to be tornadic or non-tornadic. The hope is to provide guidance to the local and federal agencies who issue warnings.
Barjenbruch first met Wood in his Severe Storms Meteorology course at UNL a few years back, when she was involved in the Student Volunteer program. Shortly after her time in that program, a job opened up at the National Weather Service.
“Michaela is a driven individual,” Barjenbruch said. “She has a great grasp of where she excels and where she can grow. She knows how quickly the weather can change and affect you directly and puts our best knowledge forward. She and everyone here at the National Weather Service want our community to be ready when the weather turns south.”
The N.W.S. has people of all ages who job shadow. There’s certainly a big interest in weather for people who live out in the plains, and Wood loves chatting with them. When people think of weather or meteorologists, they seem to only think of the people on television. They don’t think of those behind the scenes and enthusiasts of all ages.
“Weather is a fun field. I encourage people to look into it regardless if you want to pursue it as a career or not,” Wood said. “It’s fun to learn about. It’s real time, you get to watch it with your own eyes. It encompasses science and compassion. Weather is a shared experience that we all know we’ll get through together.”
To learn more, visit weather.gov
This article originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
