Mx Billie Mackenzie

Areas of expertise  

• Nowcasting 

• Software development of the PLUVIA Mesoanalysis 

• Aeronautical Meteorological Observing (AMO) 

Current activities 

Billie works on the Nowcasting R&D team, developing observation-based tools to aid in the nowcasting and situational awareness of hazards related to convection in the UK. Their current project work aims to make the PLUVIA Mesoanalysis tool ready for operational use. The PLUVIA Mesoanalysis assimilates crowd sourced WOW network observations with NWP model data, providing an Analysis of surface conditions over the UK. The density of observational data allows the tool to show localised ‘Meso’-scale features such as convergence and CAPE, which are important indicators of convective initiation.  

Career background  

Billie joined the Met Office in 2022 as an operational weather observer, becoming AMO qualified. They completed tours in both Gibraltar and Cyprus, supporting Operational Meteorologists at our overseas stations before working in the Exeter HQ Services Operations Centre. In 2023 Billie joined the Nowcasting R&D team in Weather Science.  

Prior to joining the Met Office, Billie completed an integrated MSc in Astrophysics at Durham University. Their master’s project involved tracking, observation and analysis of binary asteroid data.