One of the world’s leading weather forecasting companies is based on Warren Street in Glens Falls.
Weather Routing, Inc., occupies most of the second floor of Peter and Suzanne Hoffman’s Warren Street Square building. It employs 42 people, 41 of them meteorologists, who guide yachts and cargo vessels traveling the world’s oceans.
“In this area, we are not as well known because we’re not a business where locals would come to us for a forecast,” said Jeremy Davis, operations manager for the yachting division and senior meteorologist. “Not a lot of people here know one of the world’s leaders in weather forecasting is right here in Glens Falls, and 40-plus meteorologists work here, which makes a huge impact on the local economy.”
Jeremy Davis
Founded in 1961 in New York City by Bill Kaciak, Weather Routing has been in Glens Falls for about 35 years, the last 10 on Warren Street. The company is now owned by Peter Wirfel, formerly of South Glens Falls, who was a Weather Routing employee before buying the company in the late 1980s.
“We do a lot of different things,” Mr. Davis told Glens Falls Living. “In the yachting division, we forecast for yachts, sailboats, races, regattas and marinas worldwide. We’re doing more with people who own yachts, people who charter yachts, people that go sailing, from families all the way up to larger yachts owned by people who are household names.
“…The commercial side is the larger side. It’s more than half of our business…Cargo ships, freighters, tankers. They could be transporting anything anywhere across the world. It’s all the stuff that everybody needs. It’s the lifeblood of world commerce. It’s not something that a lot of people think about, all the stuff that goes back and forth, but even the road salt in Albany for the winter comes from Brazil.
“…We’ll find the best date to go and the best route to take. We’ll look at tropical systems, are there other kinds of bad weather, should they cancel the trip, and give them a detailed report over the phone or in writing so they can make the best possible plans.
“…While they are out at sea, we’re in constant communication with them. Communication is a lot easier and cheaper now than it used to be with email. Twenty years ago when I started here, it was a lot of satellite faxing which would cost $60 to send because it was over a satellite phone, and they would time out after eight minutes at $6 a minute.
“Now email is on almost every vessel. Communications are a lot easier and cheaper. But clients will call or email us from all over the world and it’s all done from Glens Falls, which is pretty amazing. We’re talking to people from all over the planet every day.”
Mr. Davis said “The yacht side has been growing, and the commercial side has really been growing the last five years. We strive to be really personal with our clients, really efficient. Quick responses, they really like that. They like that they can reach humans any time, day or night. That’s not always the case these days.”
He said his job makes for easy small talk at parties.
“Most people are always fascinated by what we do here because it is so different,” he said. “Most people haven’t heard of marine weather forecasting. It’s a niche service. But the cool thing is it gives you a lot to talk about because people find it fascinating. When you have a national story like a hurricane, we’re on it. We’re being affected by it in our office.”
What drives him?
“I love the challenge of it,” Mr. Davis said. “Every day is different, and it’s never boring. I like to figure out the strategy to best help our clients. And the other thing I enjoy is getting to know a lot of our clients. We get to know their vessel and get to know them on a personal level as well. And we get to talk to people around the world. We kind of become a global citizen in a way.
“As a kid, I loved tracking hurricanes and tropical storms, and would watch the Weather Channel, and now I get paid to do that. That’s pretty cool.”
Weather Routing, Inc.
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