• Weather watch

  Graduate school friendship develops into career for meteorology graduates Harvey Freese and Charlie Notis.



• Times were tough when Harvey Freese and Charlie Notis completed their master's degrees in meteorology at Iowa State in the early 1970s.
  
  The Vietnam War was still raging. Inflation was rampant. Unemployment was high. And gas lines were starting to appear across the country.
  
  "Things were terrible," said Notis, who graduated in 1972. "The National Weather Service wasn't hiring. Neither was private industry. Things were just terrible."
  
  During their graduate study, the two friends often talked of striking out on their own. The economic conditions forced their decision.
  
  "We went to Iowa Power and Light (now MidAmerican Energy in Des Moines) and talked about providing forecasts for them," Notis said. "They listened to us for a half an hour, told us thank you and said they were already working with another company."
  
  The dejection on Freese and Notis' faces must have been evident to the power company's execs.
  
  "I'll never forget this," Notis said. "As we were walking out the door they said ‘hang on a minute' and they gave us a trial period of forecasting. They liked what we gave them and a few months later they gave us a longer contract."
  
  That was the beginning of Freese Notis Weather, one of the most respected private forecasting companies in the world. The two Iowa State graduates have continued to provide services to clients worldwide for the past 30 plus years, including MidAmerican Energy, which has stayed with Freese Notis all those years.
  
  The Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences and the meteorology program recognized Freese and Notis this past Homecoming with its first Meteorology Distinguished Alumnus Awards.
  
  Those first few years weren't easy for the firm.
  
  "There were several other weather companies on the East Coast and scattered other areas of the nation, but we were the only firm in Iowa," said Freese, who graduated from Iowa State with a bachelor's degree in 1971 and a master's two years later. "But we thought this might be successful."
  
  The first few months, the Freese Notis' offices were located in the meteorology lab in Curtiss Hall on campus. There Freese and Notis would receive weather models (crude and very short term by today's standards) from the National Weather Service and listened to a radio that was tuned into the Kansas City aviation reports.
  
  "We would get the forecast for the next 36 hours from the National Weather Service from the maps (models) and listen to the radio for weather observations from around the Midwest," Freese said. "With those two pieces of information we would put together a four-day forecast."
  
  In the beginning the only customers for Freese Notis were Iowa Power and Light and one Des Moines radio station.
  
  When the company was finally incorporated, Freese says their only asset was a typewriter. Eventually they moved to Des Moines, where they remain to this day.
  
  Freese Notis Weather has evolved over the years to provide forecasts to a variety of industries including media outlets, construction and energy. But it's been in the agricultural industry that Freese Notis first made its mark.
  
  "We've had to change directions several times and each time we found a new niche," Freese said. "Our first change came in September 1974 when an early frost affected the soybean crop and thus the markets.
  
  "It was the first time that we realized that markets could be affected by the weather and soon we were specializing in the agriculture area."
  
  Notis says the agriculture and energy industries not only want to know what is going to happen today and tomorrow, but more importantly six days to two weeks out. Will the temperature be above or below normal? Where is it going to rain and how much?
  
  "Most of the long-range models (forecasts) do a terrible job six to ten days out," Notis says. "If you can get good information to people they will pay a premium for that information.
  
  "One forecast can make a company in a variety of industries millions of dollars or lose them millions of dollars."
  
  Technology has provided almost instant access to weather information for Freese and Notis. But the two pine for the days back in Curtiss Hall where they only had a radio and 36-hour National Weather Service models twice daily.
  
  "It's not as much fun as years ago," Notis said. "That was a challenge."
  
  Freese Notis has also evolved over the years into becoming an Internet Service Provider. As the company has grown, Notis has been concentrating on weather forecasting, while Freese mainly handles the administrative side of the company.
  
  And they have remained close personal friends to this day.
  
  "I would compare it to a marriage," Notis said. "There has always been a lot of give and take. We have to compromise."
  
  "I think we complement each other," Freese says. "We've grown to be very good friends."
  
  

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