Raiders of the storm: The data science behind weather prediction
What kind of data and techniques are used to model and predict weather and climate? How do you reduce uncertainty and communicate complexity? Are Harvey and Irma signs of climate change, and is it going to get worse?
Scott Capps is not your average weatherman. It was only after getting a bachelor’s degree in business and having worked in the field for about a decade that he decided to go back to college to pursue his lifelong passion: Atmospheric Science.
As a UCLA postgraduate researcher, Capps got skills that include numerical weather modeling, programming, statistics and high-performance computing, and experience in working with atmospheric datasets.
Capps combines the skills of a data scientist with the background of a meteorologist. He is now running his own business, working with utilities and public sector organizations. In addition to publishing several peer-reviewed articles on climate, Capps’ work includes multi-institution projects on public policy guidance and disaster preparedness.