Meteorology: A day with meteorologist Sebastian Wache

Sebastian Wache speaks into the camera: "Today you could really see the interplay between wind and temperature, best exemplified by Fehmarn." He had previously described the TV studio as a "green hell". No wonder, as all the walls around him and the floor are green. This is the only way that the Fehmarnsund Bridge can later be shown on TV behind the meteorologist. However, this only happens during editing. Wache explains in front of a picture that is invisible to him how the onshore southerly wind has caused a temperature difference of eight degrees just 14 kilometres from the sound. This type of weather presentation, flying blind as it were, took some getting used to at first. But over time, it became routine. "At some point, you don't even realise that you can't see what you're talking about."

Wache is one of twelve meteorologists in the team at Wetter-Welt, a company founded by Dr Meeno Schrader and based in Kiel. The two are among the company's most recognisable faces. They are the ones who predict and explain the weather to people on the NDR channels almost every day. "Even though I only have between one and a half and two minutes, I still try to give the almost 300,000 viewers of Schleswig-Holstein-Magazin the best possible understanding of the weather," says Wache.

Unrivalled service in Germany

In addition to his love of everything that happens in the sky, Wache - just like his boss - has a great passion for sailing. This is precisely why Schrader and he are known to most skippers from events such as the Kieler Woche, the Nordseewoche or the Travemünder Woche. The WetterWelt experts are also on duty for sailors away from the regatta course. For example, they make their routing service available to long-distance sailors. They are usually engaged to calculate the optimum time window for skippers or the perfect route for an ocean passage in terms of weather development.

For many years, its customers from the world of circumnavigators and sailing adventurers included Dr Heide and Erich Wilts. German regatta offshore professionals such as Melwin Fink and Lennart Burke or Sanni Beucke also rely on the expertise of the Kiel-based company. "When a skipper sails from the Canary Islands to the Cape Verde Islands, for example, I mark out the green dots as a route for him here," explains Wache as he clicks here and there on his computer screens with countless open charts and tools.

"However, it is important that the sailors understand that these waypoints are not understood as course markers. I often tell the crews that if the turn comes earlier, take it out and don't wait until you reach my point." Crews have complained because they have navigated too stoically according to Wache's plan instead of reacting to unforeseen wind changes.

I enjoy my work for sailors. But it is also a great responsibility to guide crews safely across the seas." - Sebastian Wache

Wache creates most of his routings by comparing various weather models and their forecasts and determining the most likely variant based on his experience. "For regatta courses, I often have the 'Expedition' programme, which many sailors are familiar with, calculate the perfect course at the end," says Wache. "But that's more to make sure that nothing has slipped through my fingers."

For weather routing, it uses both freely accessible and fee-based data. In addition, WetterWelt has developed its own programmes to create forecasts.

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Commercial shipping is also one of the customers

The Kiel-based company's portfolio is not just limited to sailors. "My colleagues and I also advise shipping companies or captains of container ships, for example, and try to find the quickest and most favourable route for them," explains Wache.

After a short walk across the corridor, we stand in front of a door. "This is our server room," explains Wache as he opens the door. In addition to various boxes with all kinds of tangled cables, an impressive server tower towers directly in front of the window. Weather has a lot to do with the processing of sometimes enormous amounts of data, he says.

How the weather map for NDR is created

Back in his office, Sebastian Wache sits down at his desk. On his left-hand monitor, he has opened an Excel spreadsheet that is still empty, with various symbols labelled in the margin. "This is where I enter what will later be shown on the map on TV," he says. After comparing various simulations and measured values, he gradually fills in the empty columns and rows.

Even if the beginning of March is not the time to display the symbols for the risk of slippery conditions, there are various parameters that can be predicted: air and ground temperature, wind direction and strength, cloud cover and more. "I also specify the image I want to start with," explains Wache. Later, the Fehmarnsund Bridge will be chosen to explain the difference in temperature caused by the wind direction to the viewers.

Podcast by Sebastian Wache informs skippers about the weather

In addition to the forecasts on the radio and television, Sebastian Wache gives his assessment of the meteorological situation in his podcast every Thursday during the season. In "Watersports. Weekend. Wetter", he focuses in particular on the weather conditions on the North Sea and Baltic Sea and describes how skippers should behave. But he also deals with major weather conditions and storms in the south of Germany.

His path to becoming a qualified meteorologist

Wache is 40 years old and the father of a son. "As I was already fascinated by the weather as a child, I quickly realised that I wanted to make it my profession," he recalls. After graduating from high school in 2005, he decided to study in Kiel. "However, as I found my studies at Geomar, the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, to be quite climate-heavy, I started working at Wetter-Welt as a student in my second semester," he explains. "I wanted to do more applied weather with a direct connection to people."

After a three-year stint as an environmental meteorologist in the field of odour assessments and dispersion calculations, he was finally drawn back to his current employer.

Shooting outside in good weather

"Stop the time Sebastian is talking," says the cameraman on the shore of the inner fjord in Kiel. The short programme is only supposed to be 35 to 40 seconds long. Then he gives Wache a signal and he starts: "Moving north..."

After exactly 37 seconds, he finishes his sentence and nods into the television camera. The cameraman calls out: "Right to the point, perfect!" After listening to the audio track, which a second studio employee has captured with a large boom pole, they are satisfied. After about ten minutes, everything is ready and Wache's announcement can be broadcast later that evening.

Wintertime is lecture season

During the winter months, when Wache's ship is also ashore, he is often travelling across Germany to give lectures. "I'm booked by sailing clubs and sailing schools to give weather seminars and pass on my knowledge," he explains. "If it were up to all the requests, I could give lectures every weekend from January to March." In his free time, Wache likes to go sailing in his dinghy on Kiel's inner fjord to tell people, mostly sailors, about the weather," he says flippantly. Finding enough time for his family isn't always easy, he says.

I can combine my hobby with my passion for the weather here. I not only advise sailors, but also give seminars." - Sebastian Wache

Climate change is on Sebastian Wache's mind

Sebastian Wache also likes to think outside the box: he is fascinated by the Earth's climate. On his monitor, he calls up an image of the Earth from a height of 30 kilometres. "We humans are regularly introducing substances into the Earth's sensitive atmosphere," he explains. "For example, when Elon Musk shoots rockets into space several times a week, which initially fly through all layers of the air, this is an unnatural intervention in the atmosphere."

This would mean that the rockets would release hydrogen during their combustion process, which does not belong there. "We can already see this from the cloud image," says Wache. "Normally, there are never so many clouds in the images during this time. The water vapour must come from the combustion of the rockets." The qualified meteorologist is certain that this will have a negative impact up there. Most people don't even realise this.

Professional meteorologist, ambitious climate protector and passionate sailor - with this combination, Sebastian Wache has clearly not only found a profession, but his vocation.