It turns out that being here has left me way too busy for anything like a daily diary. You’ll have to forgive the relative lack of posts. That just means I have a lot to talk about!
The Job
Working here at WFO Fairbanks has been an enjoyable challenge. I’m up here as a lead forecaster, which has quite a different meaning here than it does in the Norman office. There, the general forecasters do essentially all of the same duties as the lead forecasters, just split up based on shifts. Here, the lead has a very specific set of duties in addition to facilitating the forecast on the floor – they’re responsible for issuing all of the watch/warning/advisory products in addition to being responsible for writing some monstrously long Area Forecast Discussions. Both of these tasks take a long time when your area is this large:
And that doesn’t even consider all of the coastal waters that Fairbanks is responsible for. AND they have 12 unruly TAF sites for our aviation forecasts. All of this is to say that a day shift here, even on a “quiet” day (and there are truly no quiet days) can keep you hopping from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave.
I was given a day to learn about the office on Monday, and then a day as the lead on Tuesday with another lead in the office to help if needed, and then it was off-and-running for the rest of the week. There were plenty of mistakes to be made along the way – half of these products were ones I’d never done before, and the frenetic pace meant that some things just didn’t get done in the right order. But by the end of the week I felt like I’d conquered the steep learning curve, at least a little bit.
I had one day off on Saturday and have been working evening shifts in week 2. These evening shifts are hilariously quiet compared to the day shifts – it’s basically like being back at the Norman office on a quiet weather day. Next week I’ll go back into the mosh pit for another wild week of day shifts (hopefully with a few less coastal storms).
I don’t know if I feel like I’m doing a “good” job, but the MIC here texted Mark to say that was I doing well and she appreciated my engagement with the other forecasters. That is a very meaningful compliment. Someone’s quality as a forecaster is one thing; being here as a temporary lead forecaster has meant that I’ve had to learn about leadership capacities as a NWS employee that haven’t been necessary before. On top of looking great on a resume in a few years when I’m ready to make that jump into permanent lead status, it’s just fantastic experience. The people here have been awesome, too; some of the leads and more experienced general forecasters (in Fairbanks, that means you’ve been here for at least a year) have been super helpful to me. The office culture here really seems to be pretty good for how chronically understaffed they are.
In my spare time, I’ve been trying to experience as much of Fairbanks as possible. The one day off, I took a drive past Delta Junction down the Richardson Highway into the eastern Alaska Range – it was awesome and deserves its own blog post once I edit the pictures. Some other cool things in the last week:
-Going for walks and runs at Creamer Field on the north side of Fairbanks
-A beautiful, 65-degree sunny evening evening reading a book at Pioneer Park
-My first hike out in the Interior, where I managed NOT to get eaten by a bear despite being the last one on the trail by quite a while
-Panning for gold with a coworker of mine just outside of town
-Several trips to breweries, including HooDoo twice (I really enjoyed talking with the Filipino US Army guys) and Latitude 65 Brewing.
-Blueberry picking at Murphy Dome just outside of town
-A trip to the Museum of the North today
It’s been busy but fun, and the adventures really are just starting. After tomorrow night’s shift, it’ll be a quick weekend trip down to Denali National Park for a work event/to hike. Then, in the middle of next week, my parents, Alex, and Elizabeth all come to visit. I’m so excited to see them – although it hasn’t exactly been a lonely trip up here, I really, really miss Elizabeth.
That’s about all I have for this update. See you next week!
