Richard Northcroft "Dick" Whitaker (born 15 July 1947) is an Australian

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

and author. Whitaker is the chief meteorologist on

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...

, following his thirty-year career as a meteorologist with the

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together ...

Bureau of Meteorology

Whitaker began working with the

in 1971, aged twenty-four. A decade later, he was promoted to the role of officer in charge of the facilities and information section of the Bureau. He held this position for three years, before being promoted again to senior operational forecaster in the Sydney bureau, Australia's largest. In 1984, he was presented with an

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Ja ...

Achievement Award for his work in meteorology. In 1992, Whitaker became the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

manager for special services, dealing with exceptional circumstances and disaster recovery operations. Between 1999 and 2001 Whitaker worked with the

World Meteorological Organisation The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics. The WMO originated from the Internatio ...

as a

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Euro ...

for the Committee of Agricultural Meteorology. He retired from the Bureau in 2002 after thirty-one years.

Research and developments

Whitaker is partly credited with the initial development of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

charts for the Australian mass media. Such charts are now used throughout the print and electronic media to convey data about present and future rainfall in graphical form. In his second year at the

, 1972, he developed and authored a manual for aviation forecasting in

, still used today. Whitaker also researched the

correlation In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistics ...

between

sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature (SST), or ocean surface temperature, is the ocean temperature close to the surface. The exact meaning of ''surface'' varies according to the measurement method used, but it is between and below the sea surface. Air mass ...

s in the Indian Ocean and rainfall in Australia, which is now used as a routine consideration in the production of seasonal rainfall outlooks.

Publications and media

Whitaker is the chief meteorologist on

, having joined the station in 2004. On air, his first name is abbreviated to "Dick". He also presents numerous radio weather crosses to a selection of stations around Australia on a daily basis. Whitaker has authored or co-authored several books about weather and historical topics, having a particular interest in

natural disaster A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econ ...

List of publications

* * * * * * *Whitaker, Richard (2021). ''Weather, Waves & Water, The New South Wales Central Coast.'' Sydney, Australia: Weathersmart Publishing. ISBN 9780648883609.

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Richard Living people 1947 births Australian meteorologists Meteorologists from Melbourne Australian non-fiction writers Australian television personalities Australian radio personalities