Two of WEIU News Watch’s local forecasters shared their experiences as weather people as National Weatherperson’s Day approaches on Feb. 5. 

Everett Lau, a junior environmental and physical geography major, said his love of the weather came to him at a young age. 

“I was always interested since I was little. I remember my Sunday school teacher asked me what I wanted to be, and I told her when I was four that I wanted to be a weatherman, so it’s something I’ve been interested in for a long time,” Lau said. “I actually used to be scared of thunderstorms, so that was interesting, and I just wanted to learn more about them, and then there was a severe weather outbreak that moved through in 2011, and that really rekindled my passion and I’ve been weather crazy ever since.” 

Phil Collins, a senior environmental and physical geography major, said that while he has always been interested in the weather he did not plan on a career in weather until he was in college. 

“Originally, I was a music major here on campus and then I took weather and climate with Cameron Craig and … while having class with him I realized I love the science of it,” Collins said. 

Lau said he enjoys working as a weatherperson because it is never the same. 

“I like broadcasting weather and forecasting because it changes all the time, and here in the Midwest weather never stays the same, so I can forecast a variety of things day-to-day, week-to-week all different kinds of things, and I like forecasting because it’s something that everyone wants to know and so they’re always looking for weather information,” Lau said. 

Lau also said he appreciates that he always has new learning experiences offered to him in forecasting. 

“I think the best part right now is just telling people what to expect because it’s something that everyone’s looking out for and I’m always learning something new everyday. The weather’s never going to stay the same, so when you wake up everyday you’re going to have a new challenge to try to figure out,” Lau said. 

Collins said he enjoys that he is able to interact with people through a television screen when he is broadcasting. 

“I’m big on communicating, so I love being able to talk to people about the weather and they can’t really stop me, and I just love the idea that I get to talk to people on a daily basis because it’s one of my favorite things to do,” Collins said. “They invite me into their homes by watching the show, and every single day I get to let them know what’s up, and they trust me and that’s the thing that’s big, they trust me and I’ve got to understand where they’re coming from.” 

With weather apps becoming increasingly popular both Lau and Collins stressed the importance of weather people in society and said that even though the apps can get close to the correct forecast they are not going to have the same result that a weatherperson can get. 

“I think it’s really important especially now because it’s kind of being overshadowed now because everyone is like ‘I can just use my app, we don’t need meteorologists,’ but there’s a meteorologist out there somewhere behind that app and putting out the forecast behind it and besides that some apps just rely on model data that’s just a bunch of numbers spit out by a computer, but it takes meteorologists to interpret that data and their understanding of the science and how  everything interacts in the atmosphere together to let you know what’s going to happen,” Lau said. 

“Even with human errors (forecasters) it’s going to be a lot more accurate than any app will ever be,” Collins said. 

Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or at cebrock@eiu.edu.