KU: Department of Geography

I fell in love with weather in my early teens, and so when I started attending Kansas University I took as many weather classes as I could. I was soon involved with the KU Weather Service, where student meteorologists taught me the ropes of operational forecasting. My KU education, coupled with networking with previous KU graduates, paved the way for my first forecasting job.

I then moved out of forecasting into teaching for an airline, and then a second airline. Although out of the daily operational forecasting, I still had access to weather information that allowed me to sharpen my forecasting skills. Every peak season (December), UPS would send me to airline operations to help track and forecast winter storm systems. After a paralyzing 16 inch snowstorm shut down the city for 3 days in 1994, UPS decided that they needed a full-time meteorology department.

Randy Baker
Senior Meteorologist – UPS Airlines
502-359-5160
rtbaker@ups.com