ITT people who don't know what meteorologists actually do besides wave in front of a green screen.
I am a meteorologist who is not on TV that works for a large corporation. There are so many companies that rely on in-house meteorologists or have outsourced that you would not think about. Energy, transportation, commodities, almost every corporation with a sizeable jet fleet. Bean counters think these outsourced companies are magical and save them a ton of money, but in reality they are just meteorology sweat shops of fresh out of school kids doing dozens of forecasts an hour making under 40k. Accuweather, The Weather Company, Universal, Fleetweather, Tomorrow.io...the list goes on. The perk of an internal team is that they make customized products of whatever you want whenever you want and are usually a phone call or even just a few steps away. No doubt RC has an ops floor where dispatching and planning occurs where the meteorologist worked and coordinated with them...or it is a goal of theirs like the airline industry.
Yes the captain of a ship with thousands of people can get the weather, but you also have to realize they are following a schedule and maintaining a safe environment with what is immediately around them. Weather is tertiary to them beyond the next 12-24 hours. The Carnival cruise over the weekend ruins the argument of "the captain has all the info he need". How'd that work out? You could see that low pressure developing 5 days ago. I remember talking about it with coworkers last week. I doubt he was sitting on the internet surfing tropicaltidbits keeping an eye on it. He was clearly told to not come into port because of the bad weather...but no one told him where to ride it out and he made a bad call based on "all the info he needed".
That is why an in-house meteorologist is there...to see what is coming and provide that information, and not only for the crew. They are there to give that information to multiple people across Corporate to prepare and decide on how to act...if they need to. I bet many departments dealing with the fallout of Carnival Sunshine wish they had a heads up of a storm brewing and a ship being in vicinity. Investment in has actually increased and many companies have added meteorologists because that hyper focus and customization is worth every penny. Government forecasts are NOT good enough and they have to be for everyone. What impacts a pontoon boat will not impact a cruise ship, but they have to forecast as if someone on a pontoon is out there. Aviation forecasts are the same...turbulence in a Cessna is very different than a 737.
The downside of hiring someone from TV is that it is SO hard to get them to leave that life. You can tell with the amount of social media presence and videos that were created by him. RCCL might have needed someone more tech savvy to generate new products/services or someone who is more focused on oceanography/wave forecasting. Basically someone more nerdy and less flashy and does not mind sitting at a desk generating forecast products. TV Mets know how to have a personality and I know many who are brilliant and do know the science well, but the details of forecasting goes on the wayside when the camera turns on. Forecasting on land is extremely different than over water as well and he very well could have just not been a fit for their growth plans or products that they desire.
Yes I am biased but the victories in-house Mets get are usually never seen publicly (except Delta they are PR masters and love to show off!). Meteorologists are an easy punching bag and we have thick skin. The ignorance is amazing sometimes and you would not believe the nasty stuff TV mets get in their email. It always amazes me how many people will tell me "my phone app says this" and it is so completely wrong. Weather is never a perfect science but I don't think an app or some schmuck with the internet has ever beaten me on a forecast. If I was wrong 50% of the time I would be unemployed.
Also, no I'm not Jim Van Fleet.
