Storm chaser

“Some people say we’re like the tornado chasers in the film Twister. We watch the weather forecast for big offshore storms, then go and measure the impact the storm has on the coast. We drive quad bikes fitted with GPS over the beach so we can map its shape. We use drones fitted with GPS to map the dunes and launch probes from boats to map the part of the beach that is underwater. We do this all before and after the storm, so we can see how the storm changes things. It takes a crew of five or six people a couple of days to do. The data collection is fun, but then we need to analyse it, so we also do a lot of computer modelling. It’s important work. Storm impacts will increase with climate change, so we need to understand the effect storms have on our coasts.”