Richard Northcroft Whitaker (born July 15, 1947) is an Australian meteorologist and author. Whitaker is also a presenter on television and radio, following his esteemed thirty-year career as a meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology.

[edit] Bureau of Meteorology

Whitaker began working with the Bureau of Meteorology 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 Achievement Award for his work in the field of meteorology. In 1992 Whitaker became the New South Wales Manager for Special Services, dealing with exceptional cirumstances and disaster recovery operations. He retired from the Bureau in 2002 after thirty-one years^[1].

During the final years of his tenure at the Bureau, between 1999 and 2001 Whitaker worked with the World Meteorological Organisation as a rapporteur for the Committee of Agricultural Meteorology.

[edit] Research and developments

Whitaker is partly credited with the initial development of precipitation charts for the Australian mass media. Such charts are now used throughout print and electronic media to convey data about present and future rainfall in graphical form.

In his second year at the Bureau of Meteorology, 1972, he developed and authored a manual for aviation forecasting in the state of New South Wales, still used today. Whitaker also researched the correlation between sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean and rainfall in Australia, which is now used as a routine consideration in the production of seasonal rainfall outlooks.

[edit] Publications and media

Whitaker is now a weather presenter and senior meteorologist on The Weather Channel, having joined the station in 2004. 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 disasters.

[edit] List of publications

• Colls, Keith, Whitaker, Richard (2001). The Australian Weather Book. Sydney, Australia: Reed New Holland, pp. 216. ISBN 1 876334 68 1. 
• Whitaker, Richard (2004). Firewise, Fire-Safe: How to Survive a Bushfire. Sydney, Australia: Reed New Holland, pp. ?. ISBN 1 877069 16 7. 
• Whitaker, Richard (2005). Australia's Natural Disasters. Sydney, Australia: Reed New Holland, pp. 239. ISBN 1 877069 04 3. 
• Whitaker, Richard (2008). Disasters Events and Moments that Changed the World. Sydney, Australia: Reed New Holland, pp. 272. ISBN 1 741105 63 3. 

[edit] References

• Alafaci, Annette (2006-09-21). "Whitaker, Richard Northcroft (1947 - )". The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
• Coenraads, Robert (2006). Natural Disasters And How We Cope. Victoria, Australia: The Five Mile Press, pp. 574—5. ISBN 1 74178 212 0. 
• Tsun, Angela (n.d.). "Richard Whitaker: 'WeatherSmart'". University of New South Wales. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
• "What's in Store for Australia in future? A Matter of Time?". Australian Science Media Centre (2005-12-16). Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
• "Richard Whitaker". The Weather Channel (2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-25.