Fred Pickhardt

Fred Pickhardt is a marine meteorologist and owner of Ocean Weather Services, providing ship weather routing, vessel performance analysis, and forensic weather reconstruction for the maritime industry and admiralty law firms. He holds a BS in Meteorology and Oceanography from SUNY Maritime College and has more than 45 years of operational experience in marine weather forecasting and optimum ship routing. After graduating from SUNY Maritime, Pickhardt sailed with American Export Lines in the Far East trade and later taught marine weather observations aboard SUNY Maritime's training ship Empire State. He served as a National Weather Service Cooperative Observer for more than 20 years. His gCaptain articles cover North Atlantic storm systems, hurricane tracking for shipping lanes, Gulf Stream weather events, and the meteorology behind major maritime casualties including the Edmund Fitzgerald.