How to Read a Storm

In this workshop, hosted by Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, we explored how to ‘read’ cyclones in the sky and satellite imagery.

Informed by Bergen’s wet location at the end of the Jet Stream and its special place in meteorology as home of the so-called ‘Norwegian cyclone model’, we spent the day assembling different knowledges of storm systems.

Soph introduced open-weather’s unique Public Archive of more than 3,000 satellite images and shared the basics of DIY satellite imagery reception. In the afternoon, guided by the expertise of climate scientist Camille Li from the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, author-meteorologist Ellen Viste, and our experiences of weather, we attempted to model cyclones from the archive.

The workshop was framed by the larger, speculative question of how our different relationships to weather are and must change with the climate. It was free and open to all. No prior knowledge was required to participate.

The images below are a sample of the educational resources produced for the workshop.