Andrew Blum: Understanding How We Predict the Weather - MBM#35

Minds Behind Maps

Andrew Blum is the author of 'The Weather Machine', which provides a history & global overview of how we predict the weather, from the data collection to forecast modelling. His book came out in 2019 so we also discuss the current evolutions & changes since its release.

---

Episode Sponsor: GeoAwesomeness & UP42 EO Hub
Geoawesomeness
UP42

---

About Andrew:

Website

Twitter

Shownotes:

Andrew Blum's books

• The Weather Machine
• Tubes

Micheal Lewis, author of the Big Short

Book & Podcast recommendation

• Tomorrow & tomorrow & tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• The Carbon Copy
• Wind of Change
• Patrick Radden Keefe

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:50 Andrew Presents Himself
03:46 Difference between author and journalist
08:14 Choosing What to Write About
12:35 The Goal of Writing a Book
14:34 The Importance of Going on Location
17:04 The Duality of Talking About People / Facts
20:12 Initial Email Outreach is takes a lot of care
25:37 Weather Is International Yet Competitive
27:52 Bringing An Outsiders Perspective to Understanding the Weather
32:55 Being Knowledgeable is Simply Asking Better Questions
37:36 The Difference Between Facts, and how we Find those Facts
41:13 The Need for Separating Building & Owning
45:10 Feedback on the Weather Machine, a few years After its Release
51:52 The Dangers of Privatising Weather
01:01:11 How Good do we Actually Need Forecasts to be?
01:05:23 Weather is THE mainstream Earth Observation application
01:09:00 Data Inequality in Weather Forecasting Quality
01:14:44 How Much Does it Cost to run the Weather Machine?
01:18:15 Tips on Writing & Editing, for non-writers
01:21:44 Advice for the Scientific Community
01:27:21 Book/podcast recommendation

Feel free to reach out!
- Website
- My Twitter
- Podcast Twitter
- Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
- Edited by Peter Xiong. Find more of his work