WEATHER FORECASTER LOOKED TO SKIES FOR CAREER CHOICE.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

Weaving his bike through a hail storm at age 10 sparked Terry Schaeffer's interest in weather.

Helping guide a Navy ship through a typhoon in the South China Sea years later showed him nature's awesome power.

But for the past 25 years, the meteorologist has focused on something he finds even more fascinating - agricultural forecasting.

Schaeffer, 51, of Ventura has spent most of his career drafting detailed forecasts for Ventura County farmers and ranchers, first as a National Weather Service employee and now as a private consultant.

``I don't just like my work - I love it,'' said Schaeffer, who briefed county supervisors last week about the potential fury of this winter's El Nino.

``I like working with growers and getting feedback from them. They appreciate what I do and are understanding when I'm wrong,'' he said. ``I don't mind taking the heat if I'm wrong, but I haven't missed a freeze or hard frost since '74.''

Such a track record is highly valued in a county where agriculture is the No. 1 industry. Entire orchards can be lost in hours if farmers are not given a timely warning of an impending cold spell.

There are other private forecasters in the county, but Schaeffer is noted for his uncanny ability to predict atmospheric conditions, said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

``In a critical weather situation, like a freeze, he will call to plus or minus one degree the specific temperatures for specific areas,'' Laird said. ``There's nobody else I know of that does it with that accuracy. It's just a combination of science and witchcraft. I don't know what you call it, it's an art.''

Recently, these skills have also been used to determine the safest times to apply pesticides such as methyl bromide.

Schaeffer did much the same work for the National Weather Service until March 1996, when he says he was laid off along with about 50 other farm forecasters so the agency could pursue high-tech means of weather prediction.

Schaeffer became a private consultant and has continued to make these forecasts available to the local agricultural community through a joint venture with the farm bureau.

Schaeffer gets up near dawn each day, pores over computerized weather data and calls in the day's preliminary forecast to the Farm Bureau.

The information is made available to farmers and ranchers who, for an annual fee, can call a phone number to get the forecast as well as faxes of satellite and weather maps.

Laird says subscribers have to use a personal identification number to get the forecasts.

``This information is so valued that you have to come up with some elaborate security measures,'' he said.

Schaeffer issues a more detailed report about 10 a.m. each day, as well as an evening forecast during winter months.

The forecasts cover topics from dew points and wind directions to expected times of freezes and how quickly a rain is expected to dry up.

One satisfied subscriber is Ventura County Fire Department Chief Robert Roper, who spoke to supervisors last week, then stopped by to thank Schaeffer for the accurate forecasts.

Together they reminisced about the winter of 1990, when bitter cold threatened orchards such as the one Roper manages with a neighbor in upper Ojai.

With a timely ``fruit frost warning,'' farmers can take precautions such as setting up orchard heaters, wind machines or, more commonly, watering their crop because moisture can protect against the damage of a frost.

``A lot of times if Terry gives you a forecast you can pre-irrigate to get moisture into the trees before the frost,'' Roper said.

Schaeffer also oversees a network of thermometers that were set up in 11 key locales around the county in the 1920s. He relies on those readings, ones provided by colleagues with personal weather stations and professional services for the raw data for his forecasts.

That usually three-minute forecast, called Weather by Schaeffer, is available to nonsubscribers at $1.75 per minute.

Each year at this time, Schaeffer also tests and calibrates about 1,500 of the thermometers used in orchards and packing houses around the county.

Schaeffer, who has an office in Santa Paula, has also been retained by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department to do emergency weather forecasting if needed during El Nino.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Meteorologist Terry Schaeffer, 51, of Ventura, developed a passion for the weather as a boy.

(2) Terry Schaeffer develops reports on Ventura County weather at his private office in Santa Paula.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News