More about the weather service!
A friend of mine was asking me about all the paperwork that I have to do for the weather service the other day, and I thought I'd write a bit about that and about the weather service itself, for all those little ponies who might be interested in a career! Most of the time when ponies think about weatherponies, they picture the ponies who are bringing in, moving or breaking up clouds to create the daily weather. But they're actually only a small part of the picture! There are three bureaus of the Equestrian Weather Service, also called the three Ps - Planning, Production and ImPlementation - and I'll try to talk about each of them.
The Planning Bureau is responsible for organizing the weather for all of Equestria, seeing to it that everypony gets enough rain, sun and wind to meet their needs, as well as things like snow for winter. Planning happens at all levels: there's a central planning committee that discusses big trends but local captains also have to be able to take the quotas they're given and turn them into schedules. That's a lot of the work I end up doing these days, and my uncle Forecast is part of Central planning.
Like Planning, Production happens on both a kingdom-wide and local level. Everypony knows about the factories in Cloudsdale where the weather gets made: they've got the big machines for making fog, wind, clouds (dry, rain, snow or lightning) and rainbows, as well as the ones for making building-quality clouds (like my dad works with) or even things like cloth-of-cirrus for bedding and clothing. Usually, though, factory-made weather is meant to be a supplement for weather gathered or created on-site by local weatherponies, which is why every town will have a shed somewhere with its own weathermaking tools. Most of my family works in Production back home in Cloudsdale: it's something of a family tradition, I guess.
Implementation is really a local thing: that's those weatherponies you see that are pushing clouds. It's the end result of the service: nice weather for everypony to enjoy, whether it's a sunny day for a picnic or a cozy rainy day perfect for staying indoors next to the fireplace with friends. There's also some emergency response work with things like rainclouds for when there are fires. When I went to trade school for weather work I was actually planning on making implementation what I do, but when I got here to Horseshoe Harbor I found out that they didn't have anyone from the Weather Service at all, which is how I ended up being captain.
The thing about weather is that we have a lot of paperwork for it. We really do need it, though, because knowing where a shipment of clouds is and who signed for it last can be important. There are forms for shipping, receiving and requesting fabricated weather, for submitting and approving weather schedules, for special weather requests (for weddings or parties, for example), reports for weather-related accidents or unusual weather... well, we have forms for everything.
When signing a document you sometimes have to sign or initial more than once, and for this a lot of ponies get a personalized seal with their Cutie Mark on it: you sign on the dotted line and then stamp next to your signature, and then everypony knows that when they see that stamp that it's standing in for your signature. They save a lot of time. My uncle Frog Rain got me one as a wedding present, which was really thoughtful of him.
Anyway, that's all for now! If you would like to know more about the Equestrian Weather Service or are considering a career in the weather industry you can send away for a brochure from the Cloudsdale branch. Or you could ask me and I'd be happy to help. Remember, we're here to make your day the best it can be!
