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 atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

and author. Whitaker is the chief meteorologist on

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

, 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 Government of Australia, Australian Government that is responsible for providing Weather forecasting, weather forecasts and Meteorology, meteorological services to Australia a ...

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 and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...

Achievement Award for his work in meteorology. In 1992, Whitaker became the New South Wales manager for the Special Services Unit, the commercial arm of the Bureau during the 1990s, and this work involved enhanced communication of meteorology to the public via mass media. 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 Interna ...

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 Eur ...

for the Committee of Agricultural Meteorology. After leaving the Bureau in 2002 he became the chief meteorologist for the Weather Channel.

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 from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

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

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, 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 (or ocean surface temperature) is the ocean temperature, temperature of ocean water close to the surface. The exact meaning of ''surface'' varies in the literature and in practice. It is usually between and below the sea ...

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 2002. 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 very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

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 television weather presenters Meteorologists from Melbourne Australian non-fiction writers Australian television personalities Australian radio personalities