Tomorrow storm Corrie will rage over our country. The storm is named after Corrie van Dijk, the first female meteorologist at KNMI in 1964. Van Dijk finds it ‘very special’ that a storm bears her name. “I still keep a close eye on the weather maps.”
In the summer of 2021, the Schiedamse was asked whether she would object if a future storm would bear her name. ,,I laughed myself wildly”, she looks back. ,,I thought it was a really strange idea. But it was fun.” Van Dijk said ‘yes’, and a few months later she heard that she had actually been chosen, just like Franklin (named after the weatherman Frank Kroonenberg who died last year) and Tineke (after the Elfsteden winner of 1986, Tineke Dijkshoorn).
The list of names is being compiled in collaboration with the weather services of Great Britain and Ireland, which have been naming storms for some time. Corrie officially grew into a storm on the other side of the North Sea yesterday. Whether that will also happen in the Netherlands today – the KNMI only officially speaks of a storm if it is wind force 9 for an hour (wind speeds of 75 to 88 kilometers per hour) – is not yet certain, Van Dijk also knows, who ‘uses the weather maps. still keep a close eye on it.” “Maybe Corrie will have toned down a bit once she comes ashore, that’s not entirely clear yet.”
‘Really a special feature’
Van Dijk was born in 1938 and was therefore in her mid-twenties when she was hired as the first female meteorologist at the KNMI in 1964, at the branch at Zestienhoven Airport near Rotterdam. ,,I had been in the Air Force for two years before that, I was also the first woman in that position. It was really special at the time, although I didn’t find it that strange myself. I soon got used to working in a male community. I remember earning a few hundred guilders less than my male colleagues. In my letter of appointment it said that I would probably understand that.”
She is curious whether there was a discussion about her arrival at the weather service at the time. “I can’t imagine that there was no internal consultation about this. It must have been talked about. I would like to know if there is anything about it in the archives.”
After seven years, Van Dijk’s meteorological adventure at KNMI ended. She went to work at the medical administration of the hospital in Schiedam. “It was better to combine that with raising a child.”
‘Nice outside’
Let’s talk about storm Corrie. If a storm is named after you, do you, as the name giver, hope that it will be a very hard storm, or that it will not be that bad? Corrie van Dijk isn’t quite sure what to think either. “I especially hope that everyone can enjoy the storm a bit,” she says. “Go outside, I would say, take a nice walk.”
Watch our news videos in the playlist below:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
#Corrie #van #Dijk #gave #storm #Corrie #hope #enjoy