So.. How and when did you become interested in weather?

[Skywatch_NC]

Sounds WAY COOL, too, you having been your 4th grade classes' daily weather forecaster!

Also, I imagine being able to 'stump' some of your school friends w/ wx facts, terms, etc!

Eric

[Josephine96]

I remember it Eric.. In 4th grade.. We'd always do "John's Weather Time" lol

It'd be about a 1/2 hour after lunch and just before recess {probably around Noon eastern lol}..

It was fun.. The only question I never was able to answer was from a girl I grew up all my life with.. She asked me "how does heat lightning form" lol.. and I still hear her voice asking me that sometimes..

Everytime we see 1 another.. she jokes about that lol

[FWBHurricane]

My interest in weather came when i was 6 When Hurricane Opal hit. The storm totally destroyed my home and i was fascinated with such power. So i started reading u on hurricanes and weather during story time ( i know..i was only in 2nd grade..lol ) and i became well knon with storms, Mostly Hurricanes, by the time i was in 4th grade. When i did a report about Meteorology in 5th grade, i had known everything from which hurricanes were the worst, most costliest and what to expect during the future season. My class was speechless, my teacher said my report was the best....she didnt even know about the stuff i was talking about. It was cool.

[ColdFront77]

I think that people are probably selective on what they read. Some articles and sources of information are probably preferred more by some and less by others. You tend to have your "favorite" sources - like S2K - to get the basic information that you need to make a decision. I hop ethat helped Tom!

I am interested in reading material dealing with all the terms used in meteorology, some I have already looked through but would make sense to go over with someone that like to discuss it in detail. It would be nice if several of us could learn together with those that I already know and for what for some strange reason I don't know.

The basics are buidling blocks to the complex, those being what we also know and some that aren't too easy to understand. Even "semi-professional" and profession meteorologists are learning more as time goes by.

[elw]

I think that people are probably selective on what they read. Some articles and sources of information are probably preferred more by some and less by others. You tend to have your "favorite" sources - like S2K - to get the basic information that you need to make a decision. I hop ethat helped Tom!

I am interested in reading material dealing with all the terms used in meteorology, some I have already looked through but would make sense to go over with someone that like to discuss it in detail. It would be nice if several of us could learn together with those that I already know and for what for some strange reason I don't know.

The basics are buidling blocks to the complex, those being what we also know and some that aren't too easy to understand. Even "semi-professional" and profession meteorologists are learning more as time goes by.

That's absolutely right Tom! We as professionals are always looking for and developing new forecasting techniques.

There is also alot that can be learned from our amateur forecasters here on the board. I believe a good blend of experienced and knowledgeable amateur forecasters and the professionals here on the board are what make storm2k one of the best places for "newbies" to come and learn more about the science behind forecasting and gain a better understanding about meteorology and how it works.

As far as my interest in weather, well, it is sort of the family career. My father was a meteorologist, and former professor of meteorology at two major universities during his career. He has been retired for over four years now.

[azsnowman]

It was the summer of 1964, I was 5 yrs. old, I would spend my summers on my grandparents farm in Lockney, Texas, in the Panhandle. I would sit with my grandfather on the "Front Porch" (hence the reason for the thread *Sitting on the Front Porch* ) and watch these thunderheads building to the east. That particular summer, I was out helping my grandfather feed the chickens when we heard this noise, we looked up and RIGHT ABOVE US, was a funnel cloud in the EARLY stages of formation, you could SEE right smack dab in the MIDDLE of it , he gathered ALL us kids up, RAN for the storm cellar and we sat there for about 30 minutes, we found out that the tornado touched down about 1/2 mile away from us I had NIGHTMARES for YEARS about that day And as Paul Harvey says, "That's the REST of the STORY!"

Dennis

[azskyman]

Growing up in the Midwest, I was fascinated by the variety of weather that the 4 seasons could bring. It is my dad, however, who I credit with my early interest in weather. He taught me to watch the sky, appreciate the clouds, and when a storm hit, we'd jump in the car and find a vantage point from which to watch it and then the flooded street corners through which to drive. In the winter, we'd head out with tire chains into the snowstorms, park the car in the black of night, shut it off, and listen to the silence of the heavy snow.

I pursued as much meteorology as I could in college. My best friend's father there taught meteorology. I took both of his courses and got great grades...took more in climatology and statistics and whatever else I could find.

A year before college graduation, I witnessed the F4 tornado of April 21,1967, and watched it rip through my hometown killing 24 persons and injuring more than 450.

Drafted and sent to Vietnam, I was fascinated by its tropical weather and went through a couple of typhoons while living less than a mile from the South China Sea.

And when I returned to Illinois, I hooked up with the NWS as a Skywarn Spotter (and still am one here in Phoenix), got to be friends with the local NWS people, and assisted them with taking obs and broadcasting NOAA radio (back when rules were lax and opportunity was there).

Started my own backyard weather station in 1974 and continued it for 23 consecutive years. Wrote dozens of articles for the local newspaper on weather and became the local weatherman (a label that I still have when I go back).

I was cofounder of the Association of American Weather Observers, a vibrant group of thousands who I encouraged and brought out of the closet from 1983 through 1997 as editor of the American Weather Observer. During that time I was elected Counselor of the National Weather Association and spoke before hundreds of teachers in Silver Spring, Maryland, as a member of the AMS committee on School and Popular Oceanographic and Meteorological Education.

My love of weather brought interviews from TV Guide, The Wall Street Journal, and I've done live radio interviews as far away as BBC in the UK.

Over the years, my passion for weather has only been outdone by my passion for people who enjoy weather....like those here at Storm2k.

While I have received awards and certificates from the NWS and other weather entities and list among weather friends such folks as Jim Cantore, Tom Skilling, Dick Goddard, Fred Ostby, Jack Borden, Jack Williams, and many more, there is nothing I value more in my life's work in weather than a simple exchange of emails among those who understand and enjoy the sky as much as I do.

...and it all started when my dad simply said look up and enjoy the sky right outside your window.

[ColdFront77]

I've also enjoyed looking at the various map data, including current and future images of the various weather information.
Even looking at the previous hour data has a point.

Perhaps we can review all the different weather maps that exist, even those the majority of us totally understand. After all,
it is from these that the understanding of the more complicated images (like anything else) comes to be.

It seems as though this sort of thing would of already been done by now -- or perhaps no one ever thought about it.....