Although the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills is a far cry from the Central New York way of life, (thank goodness), I find myself increasingly more concerned about the Hollywood movie and party scene. Here’s why…
Besides being the Chief Meteorologist at CNYcentral for the past 26 years, I am also President of Precision Weather Service, a private weather consulting firm with offices in Syracuse and Portland, Maine. We have a staff of a dozen meteorologists, and I am happy to say that the other meteorologists at CNYcentral (Peter Hall, Mike Brookins and Matt Stevens) also do some extra weather work for me in my company. We do specialized weather forecasting and research for hundreds of clients around the world like The Academy Awards, The Cannes Film Festival in France, the Sundance Film Festival, movie premiers and The Golden Globes, taking place this Sunday in Hollywood!  They all depend on our forecasting expertise to make sure they are ready for whatever weather Mother Nature may bring.
 
So, why are these folks concerned about the weather?. It's simple. Because all or part of these events are outdoors, and even though they may take place in often times beautiful Southern California or on the French Riviera, gusty winds, excessive heat or passing showers can put a damper on things, and more importantly, cost the organizers a whole lot of money!
To give you some deeper insight into how these events are planned for, consider that most of these events rely on numerous different companies to make it happen. Generally, the governing organization - i.e. The Academy Awards - hires a huge event planning and production company (usually based around Hollywood or in New York City) to develop and produce the event. This mega-event production company has responsibility for everything from catering to carpenters and everything in between, and each event is different.
For something like The Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, there is much coordination required as both events begin outdoors before heading inside to the weather-safe confines of the auditorium. Bleachers, lighting, statues, giant balloons, and the much publicized red carpet are all outdoors where the Hollywood elite are dropped off by their chauffeurs. Often times, these events will have a waiting area and food being prepared and served outside, not to mention throngs of on lookers and media. If it rains or gets windy, you can see how that would be a problem, and believe me, a “light shower” in Southern California is like a deluge in Central New York… that’s the Southern California psychology we have learned over the years. If we tell them “10% chance for a few sprinkles”, they want to know how many and what time.
We did forecasting for a large Paramount and Dreamworks (Steven Speilberg’s company)  movie premiere a year ago that involved concern for wind speed at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. You may have heard of the movie, “Kung Fu Panda". It was the release of the DVD and all the actors in the movie were there including Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu. As you can imagine, it was a big “shindig” complete with dozens of other stars, hundreds of VIP guests and thousands of spectators. Here is a link to some video of the premiere we were forecasting for that day, courtesy of YouTube.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/kung-fu-panda-dvd-premiere-jolie-jack-black-hoffman/2274811273/?icid=VIDURVENT10
**When watching this video, take note, especially in the first 30 seconds of the trees and shrubbery moving around in the wind. For this particular event, given the fact we know it would stay dry, the wind was our biggest concern. Why?  Because the movie studio had a giant helium filled panda (maybe 40 feet high) they were planning on securing to the roof of Grauman's for the event. Just like hot air balloons and the space shuttle, they have a maximum acceptable wind speed they can deal with, 8-10 mph for this giant panda. This was a problem since the Santa Ana winds had been kicking up, coming out of the valleys to the north and east, and detailed analysis indicated sustained winds reaching Graumans at around 15 mph. I was on the phone with the “balloon company experts” numerous times that day, updating the forecast hour-by-hour and (through the magic of the internet), able to watch for myself on live webcam the whole show. I watched the balloon being blown up to seeing them trying to control it on the ground and move it closer to the roof (they thought they’d give it a try), and eventually making the decision to scrub the balloon idea, that there would be little or no let up in the wind speed anytime soon, and watching on webcam I saw the balloon being deflated.

The event went on without the giant panda on the roof, and speaking with all involved after the fact, the event was a success and we all agreed that we did the right thing. I don’t know what the cost of that giant balloon is, but I’d have to say many thousands of dollars. They took my advice, went by my forecast and elected to not take a chance on tearing a hole in the balloon.
Like I said, each movie event situation is different, but they all have one thing in common, lots and lots of pre-planning. We actually begin sending reports for events 7-10 days in advance and update often right up to the event as we see things change. We usually have a long list of folks our reports are sent to including the movie studio, event producers, the theater or hotel, caterers and many more.
If you would like a live look at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, click this link for three different webcams of the theater.
http://www.manntheatres.com/webcam/index.php
It's always fun, different and interesting dealing with the movie industry and working on these world wide events.
A few other links you might find of interest:

All Weather Facebook site. Search Precision Weather Service and “like”.
Amazing weather videos and stories.

The Priscilla Mahar Animal Welfare Foundation. My non-profit foundation for animal welfare.   www.pmawf.org