Meteorologist Roman Vilfand spoke about his favorite weather

The country’s chief weather forecaster was born on June 13, 1948 in Kyiv. In 1966 he entered the Moscow State University, the Department of Meteorology and Climatology at the Faculty of Geography, and remained there to teach after graduation.

Roman Mendelevich came to the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia in 1973. From 2001 to 2018 he was its director, now he is the scientific director of this organization.

Knowing and communicating with this man, a true professional in his field, for more than one year, we learned many interesting facts about his work and about himself. Something was included in our numerous interviews, something remained outside the brackets. Today we decided to remember the most interesting.

Weather forecaster without an umbrella

Roman Vilfand calls late spring his favorite time of the year, when the sun shines brightly, flowers bloom and trees blossom. “I don’t really like the withering of nature, which Pushkin loves,” he says and adds that he cannot agree with the outstanding director Eldar Ryazanov, who once wrote the song “Nature has no bad weather.”

“I love Eldar Alexandrovich Ryazanov very much, but as a meteorologist I will still correct his poems: nature has no bad seasons, but bad weather, alas, happens. These are dangerous natural phenomena: either heavy rains that wash away buildings, transmission poles, or heavy snow that blocks traffic on the roads, or gusts of wind at a speed of 25 m / s that blow off the roofs of houses.

Meanwhile, the meteorologist, according to him, fundamentally dislikes an umbrella: “Until the age of 60, I never took it with me. Now sometimes I take it to work. Don’t ask me why, I don’t analyze it.”

Meteorology defeated genetics

Before entering the Faculty of Geography, the future scientist suddenly became interested in genetics – he read articles about it in the journal Science and Life. As a result, when it was time to decide on the institute, he had to choose from three areas: biophysics, oceanology and meteorology. But the profession of a meteorologist still won: this was largely influenced by the novel by Daniil Granin, read in his youth, “I’m going into a thunderstorm”, and a school teacher, whose expressive stories about geographical and astronomical discoveries, sunk into the soul from childhood, and reading about sea dives of Jacques Cousteau.

Animal Encounters

“It is worth enrolling in the Faculty of Geography, if only because you will travel all over the country during your studies!” Roman Mendelevich once told me. Where has he not been! And the Khibiny, and the Carpathians, and Central Asia. During one such expedition in the morning, students heard the sound of bowls left in the evening near the tent. They look out – and this is a she-wolf with cubs licking them. The beast managed to drive them away without a gun.

But one day Roman Vilfand nevertheless picked up a hunting weapon…. For the first and last time. “I loaded the gun, took a comfortable position, after listening to the instructions that the deer should be aimed at the neck … And now these beautiful animals come. I aimed, as I was taught, at the male, who was standing about 40 meters from me. And then he turns his head, I see the eyes of this most beautiful animal …. It is difficult to convey what I felt then. Put the gun aside.”

Clouds and math

When asked what you like best in your profession, Roman Mendelevich highlights large-scale modeling of meteorological processes: “Here, for example, you can describe in words how a cloud forms and evolves into other forms: flat cumulus (Cumulus humilis) becomes cumulus mediocris (medium) , then turns into a cumulus congestus – powerful, and then completely develops into a thunderstorm. Now imagine that all this beauty can be expressed just as beautifully, almost musically, using partial differential equations.

Olympics without precipitation

Before preparing for the 1980 Olympics, weather forecasters were required to do the unthinkable: perfect weather. At least an accurate prediction in which month it should be expected. Roman Mendelevich was a senior researcher at that time, he had just defended his dissertation. I had to apply a mathematical calculation, which showed that the period with less precipitation lasts in Moscow from the third decade of July to mid-August. The weather did not let the scientists down – after that they received the most positive feedback from the government.

As for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the help of weather forecasters was also required there. It was on their advice that some competitions were held at night. And why? Yes, because the daytime did not promise anything good for the sports results of skiers or snowboarders: either strong winds or freezing rains were predicted.

About love

During one interview, Roman Mendelevich was asked how accurately he is able to calculate the “weather” in his own home, in personal relationships? “I don’t have any intuition about this! I, if you like, are not interested in the study of society at all. I am so pleased that, going out into the street, I understand what is happening in the sky, that I do not want to know more. “Here are cumulus clouds, here are altocumulus clouds, here are cirrus clouds. Wow! So the front will pass in 6-8 hours! ”, I sometimes say to myself, going to work. And family life … you know, this is a great mystery, and let it remain so. Gorky said: “If you know why you love a woman, then you don’t love her.” No analytics should work here.”