From Rocks to Clouds: A Meteorologist’s Path to Qantas

My journey to becoming a meteorologist was a winding road. I’ve always been curious about how things work. I was a geologist first and worked on exploration projects in West Africa. After understanding how rocks work, I became curious about clouds.

The role of a meteorologist at Qantas is as a planning and tactical resource. Our advice informs the fuel uptake of all arrivals at main ports, both domestic and international, especially long-haul flights. We also give advice beyond what the flight-planning system does. We forecast 24/7, in both hemispheres. It’s a great job because you sink your teeth into four seasons in one day.

We’ve had a lot of challenging weather events in the past five years, from multiple La Niña events on Australia’s east coast to the Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano eruption in Indonesia. The most challenging, perhaps, were the 2019-2020 bushfires. We had to develop new techniques to forecast the thunderstorms associated with fires, which are called pyrocumulonimbus clouds. Together with the Bureau of Meteorology, we had to be creative and adapt quickly. Fire behaviour on that scale wasn’t something we’d had to deal with before as aviation meteorologists, let alone the general weather forecasting community.

There’s nothing that says “Australia” quite like Qantas. I came to this country from South Africa just over eight years ago. From the moment I began work here, I was surrounded by pride and expertise. It’s unparalleled in any work I’ve done before.

Jacobus Cronjé, Aviation Meteorologist