Chernobyl at 40: My life as a meteorologist under Russian occupation

As Russian troops crossed the Belarusian border into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Lyudmila Dyblenko, head of the Chernobyl weather station, told her aides to gather their belongings and flee. But by the time she had done this, her own window of escape was closed; Russia had seized the exclusion zone around the factory.

“I started gathering monitors and equipment, and then it was way too late,” Dyblenko says, speaking to me in the small house that houses the weather station. Even though at that moment she had no choice but to cower, she heroically decided to continue taking the vital measurements of radiation, temperature, wind, rain, and other measurements that allow scientists to monitor conditions at Chernobyl. “I decided to continue my work,” she says. “I really love my job and I really love my country.”

The task of taking and transmitting readings is generally automated, but on March 9, its power supply was cut off. This rendered his equipment useless and also made heating and cooking virtually impossible. The cottage was the warmest place I experienced during my stay in Chernobyl in winter, with a lit fire that made Dyblenko’s small office a cozy place to work. During the occupation, it was a different story.

Dyblenko carefully observed the schedules of Russian patrols, calculated their schedules and began taking measurements manually, then transmitting them to an old cell phone that she discovered had a better antenna than modern smartphones. The weather station is at the highest point in Chernobyl, and it discovered a few places nearby – a truck parking lot and a church – where it could find a weak signal and retrieve its data.

“I have software where you put the data and it’s automatically assembled and sent, but it was impossible [during the power outage]so I had to do it manually,” says Dyblenko.

Unfortunately, while Dyblenko worked, Russian soldiers became more daring. One of them ended up breaking into her house to demand cognac. She decided to treat him like a naughty schoolboy and barked, “Is this a restaurant?” Luckily it worked and he walked away with his tail between his legs.

Eventually, she realized that constant surveillance had been placed on her when she spotted a small red point of light in the bushes on the other side of the clearing in which the scientific instruments are housed. She decided not to look at him and continue as before.

With it, there are no data gaps, meaning that the scientific analysis of the Chernobyl exclusion zone can be complete and accurate – without missing a period of data during the occupation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented her with a medal for her courage, perhaps the only one a meteorologist will receive during this war, about which she speaks – rightly – with obvious pride.