💡 Why it matters: Accurate forecasts protect farmers, pilots, ships and families from storms, floods and heat, and climate change makes weather science more important everywhere.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs are projected to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, about as fast as average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦800k – ₦1.8M
- Mid-career
- ₦2M – ₦5M
- Senior
- ₦5M – ₦10M
≈ ₦167k – ₦417k a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇺🇸 United States
Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Hourly wage low/median/high x 2,080 hours. Job Bank (Government of Canada), 2023-2024
Yearly pay before tax. UK, US and Canada figures come from the official sources named on each card. Nigeria has no official salary survey, so those are our indicative estimates. Real pay depends on the employer, the place, your skills and experience.
🛠️ What you actually do
- Study satellite images, radar and weather data
- Run computer models to forecast the weather
- Issue warnings for storms, floods and heat
- Brief pilots, farmers, ships or the news media
- Study long-term climate patterns
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Maths and physics
- Analysing data
- Computer skills
- Clear communication
- Working under pressure
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- NiMet hires graduates and trains forecasters
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Met Office and armed forces run training programmes
- Weather forecaster or science apprenticeships
🇺🇸 United States
- Military weather programmes
- Internships with the National Weather Service or private forecasters
🇨🇦 Canada
- Weather service and military weather programmes
- Co-op placements with Environment and Climate Change Canada or private forecasters
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Study Physics, Mathematics and Geography at school
- 2Take a degree in meteorology, physics or maths
- 3Join a weather service or forecasting company as a trainee
- 4Learn to run and check forecast models
- 5Specialise in areas such as aviation, flooding or climate
⏰ A day in the life
You check the overnight radar and notice a storm building over the coast. You compare it with the computer forecasts, decide how strong it will be and send out a warning. Later you explain the risk to a local radio station.