Grymes has been at LSU since 1985, working in a variety of positions, including as state climatologist. The SRCC monitors and evaluates climate-related matters in six southern states. It's one of only six such federally funded centers in the country. It's a pretty large area, and an area with a lot of interesting weather activity. In addition to serving as a climate data archive and delivery center, the SRCC works directly with the state's Office of Emergency Preparedness to track threatening storms.
Climatology is a field that offers many different types of opportunities.
The way I like to explain it is that meteorology focuses on what's going on in the atmosphere, and the specialty of that discipline is weather forecasting. Grymes, who grew up in Wilmington, Del., earned a B.A. in biology, but was so unsure about his professional future that he took a job as a custodian in an area school until deciding to pursue his master's degree in climatology. As Louisiana state climatologist, Grymes is responsible for providing climate data services for the state, including data archival, distribution, summary and interpretation. In most cases, the climate information is not the key, but it serves as physical evidence or as support to other issues. We make Delaware look like the Appalachian Mountains.