The Rural Voice, 1988-03, Page 36RAIN OR SHINE
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AN INTERVIEW WITH METEOROLOGIST
JAY CAMPBELL brWayne Kr°r
"How curious and humiliating that,
after living in the world, as men have,
for thousands of years, and learning
about almost everything else, we should
yet be in total darkness as to the character
of the forthcoming seasons. Governed as
they are by immutable laws, with historic
records and scientific observations at
command, what walking clods we are as
to the impending weather."
— F. K. Phenix in Facts for Farmers, 1868
T
his 120 -year-old lament may be
true in the minds of those who
are prone to blame the weather-
man for unpleasant surprises, but one
Ontario meteorologist sees things
differently.
Jay Campbell, a former Huron
County resident who is now staff
weatherman at CFPL-TV in London,
believes that when it comes to pre-
dicting the weather, the wind is at our
back.
With more sophisticated monitor-
ing and reporting techniques and
rapidly advancing computerization,
Campbell says the great challenge is
how to put the wealth of weather data
to work. From the computer in his
home, which "interfaces" with statis-
tical data banks and weather sources
all over the world, Campbell has daily
access to 2,500 maps and forecast
charts.
It was a long-time interest in the
far north and the weather notations
made by Arctic explorers that moti-
vated Jay Campbell to visit the weath-
er office in London during the early
1960s. After leaving the University of
Western Ontario and completing post-
graduate studies in meteorology, he
entered the field of active weather
forecasting in 1966.
"There is so much data available
now that the real skills of weathermen
involve how best to use the material,"
Campbell says. At the CFPL-TV
weather map, computerized commu-
nications have advanced the accuracy
of weather forecasts to 92 per cent
over a 24-hour period, he notes. The
three-day forecast is 80 per cent
accurate, and the five-day prediction
comes through 70 per cent of the time.
These figures are up substantially
from even just 12 months ago.
During an interview conducted
at the TV -London studios, Campbell
explained some of his thoughts on
agricultural meteorology:
Question: Weather forecasting is
perhaps more important to farmers
than most other professions. Just
what should farmers know about
meteorology?
JC: Well, let me tell you about a bias
I have had for quite a few years.
When a pilot gets in a plane, we give
him a good forecast of what he can
expect. We also plan for that fore-
cast's being wrong so that he has
alternatives. The government puts a
lot of money and effort into training
pilots to understand weather. I think
the same effort should be put toward
agriculture.
As a young meteorologist, I spent
much time learning about different
types of aircraft, their flying capabili-
ties, the weather limitations of particu-
lar aircraft ... Well, I think we should
be spending that same effort with
agricultural people so we can say
"here is what we think is going to
happen, but here are the alternatives"
— and have the agricultural person
knowledgeable enough to ask the right
questions. Their altematives might be
in terms of their work schedules,
particularly when it's most crucial at
planting time, in the spring and at
harvest time.
We haven't really put that kind of
effort into agriculture and yet it goes
back far longer than aviation and
probably has an impact on a greater
34 THE RURAL VOICE