Episode 3: Successes and a Career of Connections Liz: I�m Liz Carter, a science communicator from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and this is Alaska Voices, a place where community members, friends, and scientists can share stories and place-based knowledge in order to build a better tomorrow for Alaskans and the world. [music and audio introduction] Liz: This miniseries is an interview style show that explores the life and career thus far of the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy�s climate specialist Rick Thoman. During these� four episodes we will examine how Rick found his way to Alaska, how his career has grown and changed over the last 40 years, some major impacts and successes, and how his career can teach others about how to best work within Alaskan communities.� Liz: In this episode, we will explore some of Rick�s major career successes, and the legacy he has created with his many� years of service to the state of Alaska. To get a clear picture of all that Rick has accomplished, I will be talking not only to Rick, but also to a few key collaborators he has worked with over the years. I got the opportunity to travel to Nome with Rick to connect with community partners in October of 2024, which allowed me to observe the connections he still has to the region and how he has made concerted efforts to maintain his role as a trusted resource in Western Alaska. As we discussed in the last episode, Rick began his career with the National Weather Service in Alaska in 1988 as a Weather Observer in Nome before moving to Fairbanks in 1990 to continue his career as a General Forecaster. Though he would only spend two years working directly with Nome, he would spend much of his career providing weather and climate services to the region.� Rick: Y'know, after I got the job in Fairbanks and left� I was always happy that I was able to continue forecasting out of Fairbanks for that part of the world. And once in a while we would get inquiries from the Nome media, that became more frequent as the weather service reduced staffing at the office in Nome. So, late in my weather service career, say 2015 or so, I was regularly talking to both the radio station and the newspaper simply because there was less weather service folk in Nome to talk to at the time they needed it.� Liz: In Nome, I got the chance to talk to Diana Haecker, who has been a reporter for the Nome Nugget newspaper for 22 years now, about her collaborations with Rick.� Diana: We started in 2018, a feature that�s called Climate Watch. And each week Rick has contributed to the Nome Nugget Newspaper and our readership on deeper understanding of what is happening at the intersection of weather and climate, because that�s two different things. Rick helped us understand more about trends, he interprets for us data, what it means for us who live here. Because there�s a really particular language to weather and climate and Rick helped us translate that into language we can all understand.� Liz: And what about that work is particularly valuable? Diana: The knowledge Rick brings is not just academic and just sitting there at the hotspot of climate research in Fairbanks, but also Rick knows having lived here what it really means for us to be hammered by certain storms and he knows that Teller is not like Nome, and Nome is not like Kotlik or Unalakleet and there�s a lot of different variables to how the land influences weather events. And that knowledge is priceless because it translates to direct actionable things for us that we can be putting to use.� Liz: Talking with people in Western Alaska and with Rick, it was made clear that the thing most needed by rural communities was this local knowledge and understanding.� Rick: With going from places like Utquiavik and Nome, where for decades there had been weather service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to no availability, no staffing at those sites. But I think one of the things that has become clear in the revision of weather and climate services is that there is no substitute, there is no online alternative, to local knowledge, local expertise, local availability. Weather forecasting has changed a lot in the last 40 years in the way it�s done, in the way the information is presented. But having someone who can take that information, however it�s derived, and put it into local and regional context remains just as important as it was 50 years ago.� Liz: While in Nome, I also got to talk with Gay Sheffield, the Sea Grant Marine Mammal Advisory Agent, about how Rick�s relationship with the region has evolved over time and how it has become even more important in the face of changing climate norms.� Gay: I think everyone�s relationship with Rick has grown in the Bering Strait as he has seen a need for public service. 2017, 2018, 2019, we were on fire and the ecosystem responded and is still responding and trying to settle down. And the weather that resulted when you jack up the ocean temperature 11 degrees fahrenheit. When you live in the Bering Strait, you�re surrounded on three sides by water, the primary place to get food. Comprehensive use of the maritime ecosystem. And he was sort of returning, very familiar with this place, and he was stunned as we all were, and he had the expertise not only of where he was. He was familiar with the subsistence activities, the importance of the water. He was very grounded in what he was seeing as well. Like everyone else was stunned. So, I think everyone has grown with Rick Thoman.� Liz: Here, Gay is referring to record heat waves and sea ice lows that occurred in the Bering Strait in the late 2010s. 2018 would see the lowest sea ice levels in the area�s recorded history, with cascading effects in the marine ecosystems still ongoing. With climate shifts like these, Gay talked about how important it is to have people like Rick working in the region.� Gay: What makes him so effective is he�s highly skilled in his craft. He obviously demands a lot of himself, like he is going to do these things because it matters. He cares about languages, indigenous languages, he cares about the people out here. He cares about this unique region that�s hard to describe quickly. At a time when we�re in distress, not just the people, the animals are in distress. The people of this region deserve the service that everyone else doesn�t even think about twice throughout the land. There�s people with lots of questions. And people know for the weather and storms, everyone gets a service. You can pick up the paper, there�s Rick Thoman. Facebook, there he is. And we know that takes time.� Liz: As well as his impacts in Western Alaska, I was able to talk with Rick about what he would consider some of his career highlights overall. What would you say is one of your most important forecasts? Rick: I have long thought that one of the most consequential forecasts I ever issued were about the 1999 cold snap in Alaska in January or February. That was another cold snap, it was well advertised by the models, and we made the decision about 4 days out to start notifying entities because it was clear it was going to be a major cold snap and probably quite long lasting. And as a result of those forecasts, we learned after the fact that air delivered fuel, principally Everett�s Air Fuel, they pushed the schedule up. And they were able to get fuel ahead of schedule to every village that needed it except one. And without that heads up there would have been a lot more places that ran out of fuel. And so I think that was a major, an important forecast that I led on that. Getting that advanced word out and then people actually took action and kept people warm through that.� Liz: I talked with Ed Plumb, the Marine and Coastal Flood Program Manager for the National Weather Service in the Alaska region, about his time working with Rick. They began working together in 1996 and have continued collaborating even after Rick�s retirement and transition to ACCAP.� Ed: One of the things that stands out to me is that Rick is like a living encyclopedia or google search engine for climate and weather information from across Alaska. He can remember events, the details, the time, the day. He remembers the details. So, he�s always been someone I�ve gone to as a climate expert that lived, if he hasn�t lived through the event or witnessed it, even historical events he is aware of and researched and remembers. It�s hard to find anyone, I don�t think there�s anyone in Alaska with that wealth of knowledge, that sort of photographic memory of past climate events that have happened.� Liz: And how have you seen Rick apply this skill in his career? Ed: The thing with Rick is his ability to make the connection between weather and climate and how that impacts the environment, people, plants, ecology, sea ice, basically the entire spectrum that�s impacted by changes in weather and climate. Especially his knowledge of how it impacts the people of Alaska, specifically Alaska native or indigenous people. And it�s not only the weather, like it�s a cold day and that might have an impact directly, but how it impacts subsistence and subsistence activities and cultural activities and things like that. He�s got a very deep connection between the two. Another thing about Rick is just his curiosity of how the weather and climate impacts people. He�s always been curious and he�s good with sharing that with us at the weather service, to help us have a better understanding of how that�s impacting people. He listens, he�s kind, and very conscientious.� Liz: Rick�s work expands to the academic realm as well. I sat down with Uma Bhatt, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, about how she has worked with Rick over the years. In the last 20 years she has partnered with Rick to meet with her graduate students to advise on climate research.� Uma: Rick is one of the people that my face lights up when I run into him. I have really enjoyed working with him. I value his expertise. I seek him out for opinions all the time. And he�s very reliable. When I send him an email, he will answer.� Liz: What would you say made him effective at helping your students? Uma: Rick has always been a very clear communicator. He�s also very direct. If he thinks something is not a good idea, he�ll tell you. But he does it in a way that the students just loved him and they got a lot out of it, and they were so thankful that he had the time to participate. He�s a very empathetic person and he really cares about people. And at the root of being able to work with all kinds of people is you have to care about people. So, I think that personal empathy and care makes a big difference in how Rick interacts with the community. That sort of makes it a lot easier. If you care to begin with, then kind of you can be intuitive and do a great job.� Liz: Having talked to many of Rick�s collaborators, I also asked Rick what he thinks has helped him cultivate these relationships across the state over the years.� Rick: Listening, and by listening I mean active listening. So, paying attention, not having your responses spinning in your head at the same time people are talking. Being honest about what you can and can do is another thing, almost everyone appreciates that. Certainly being available on people�s timeline, as anyone who has spent any time living and working in rural Alaska knows, timelines are different. If you�re upset because a meeting was supposed to start at 2 and now it�s 2:10, that�s gonna come out at least in your body language and people are gonna pick up on that. You just have to say �ok, this is what it is, the meeting will happen when it happens� and that will make a more productive time for everyone. Understanding that, understanding culturally what�s appropriate and what�s not is key. Certainly being available when people need something, being responsive to that is a key facet as well.� [outro music] Liz: Alaska Voices is a place for communities to connect through conversation.� This mini series was created by Liz Carter, an Alaska Fellow at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. ACCAP is housed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks,� International Arctic Research Center and is one of several Climate Adaptation Partnerships teams funded by the NOAA Climate Program Office. ACCAP works to build healthy and thriving Alaska communities, economies and ecosystems in a changing climate.� This project was supported by the Alaska Voices team.. If you are interested in more conversations or information, please visit Alaska Voices.org.