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What caused you to have interest in weather? Were you inspired by a person or event. Tell us your stories!!
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Why Are You Here?
- Thread starter Lori
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I was 8 years old. I was a kid. It was snowing. As a kid I liked snow and asked my dad who forecast it. He said a meteorologist. That’s when I wanted to become a meteorologist and research more into weather. I never lost interest because it’s incredibly awesome stuff!
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Kory
Member
The incredibly active stretch of hurricanes from 2002-2005 living on the Gulf Coast. Never took it up as a major but I stayed earth science (geology and hydrology).
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- #4
Late 90s/early 00s I had a television with an alarm clock so every morning before school I woke up to the weather channel at exactly 7:24am when "The Local on the 8s" started.
I've always been fascinated with the weather but I didn't get involved and truly interested in forecast or interpreting anything other than reflectivity on the radar until 4/27. Since then I've been here and kept tabs on the models.
I've always been fascinated with the weather but I didn't get involved and truly interested in forecast or interpreting anything other than reflectivity on the radar until 4/27. Since then I've been here and kept tabs on the models.
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I was scared to death of storms as a kid. I had a great teacher who worked with me to understand how storms work. Knowledge is power.
warneagle
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It started early enough in life for me that I actually don't even remember.
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Interested because my earliest memory is the 74 tornadoes(I was 2 1/2). I'm here because a blog linked me to Talkweather's Hurricane Ivan thread in 2004 and I sort of stuck around.
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- #8
I remember living on Millington Naval base in 1982. We were outside playing as kids did at that time and we all saw the tornado. I was worried about it, went and told my mother who said no there is no tornado outside. It didn't hit where we were and was probably a mile or so away but we witnessed it. The next day the news was all over the place and we could see the trees and everything that was downed by it. I don't remember much else but from that day I have always had an interest in weather. I love looking at thunderstorms. It wasn't until years later with the internet and all the tools we have now that I decided to be involved in tracking and looking at weather. Coupled with my Ham Radio interests it makes a perfect fit.
I love weather days, not because of the destruction they cause, but because of the power they exhibit, the beauty they provide and the awesome power they show us in the power of earth. I also love being on the radars watching the storms form, hearing the stories from others, and being part of a community of people with the same interests as mine. Weather is scary, dangerous, weird, unpredictable at times, but fun and exciting all at the same time.
I love weather days, not because of the destruction they cause, but because of the power they exhibit, the beauty they provide and the awesome power they show us in the power of earth. I also love being on the radars watching the storms form, hearing the stories from others, and being part of a community of people with the same interests as mine. Weather is scary, dangerous, weird, unpredictable at times, but fun and exciting all at the same time.
warneagle
Member
I think my earliest weather-related memory is Hurricane Opal (I was five at the time).
tennessee storm chaser
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The super outbreak of April 74 I was 11 years old... remember that day really well... that got me interested in tornadoes ... hook ever since
samuel557
Member
When i was about 5 I started to really like both lightning and tornadoes. Ever since then I have been a sever weather enthusiast and love watching large thunderstorms, dust devils, lightning ect... (i have yet to see a tornado). Also I love to feel the wind outside and ponder about how we all live in a fluid (air). It is so fascinating to think about all the potential energy that is in an unstable atmosphere!
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- #12
How old are you now? You need to go storm chasing.
Equus
Member
Hurricane Opal's massive swath of inland wind is my earliest memory I can put a date to (I was 4) and watching the tall pines at my grandparents' house sway all night as the power flickered on and off was a pretty defining start. Used to rent weather related library books after that.
Then the April 8 1998 Birmingham F5 I remember watching TV coverage of, and eight days later remember hiding in the basement for a supercell that wound up producing a tornado a few miles away that knocked over a dozen trees at my aunt's house. So that spawned an interest in tornadoes as well.
A couple years later or so, got accidentally locked outside at a church before Vacation Bible School during either a microburst or an extraordinarily long lasting and violent gust front (family worked at VBS and got there before the doors were unlocked, just as a severe storm arrived) and had to grapple my way around the church to an unlocked front door in blinding dust and wind, before VBS was cancelled that night due to power outages and local damage. That terrified me of wind for many many years to come.
The February 16 2001 derecho certainly made me fear linear storms even without tornadoes with its swath of extremely strong winds that sent me hiding, and the November 24 outbreak that year sent an entire panicked youth camping group and their parents into our basement to hide as the Kennedy F3 dissipated only a few miles west of us; the fear and panic in people forced to shelter from a confirmed tornado sticks with you.
Then the night of November 10 2002 cemented fate permanently as the back to back F3s in Walker County wiped out homes of friends, neighbors, and swaths of very familiar roads once tree-covered with old houses that I had been used to growing up. The Carbon Hill F3 passed a mile from where we were living and debris fell in the yard, and the Saragossa F3 passed a mile from grandparents. They could feel a pressure drop and clearly hear the roar and the snapping pines from their basement. At 11 years old helping friends dip their few surviving belongings out of a pond next to their completely leveled house leaves a huge impression.
Severe fear of wind took some counseling and several years to get over, and Hurricane Ivan didn't help, but the process of obsessively studying weather to learn about those things certainly cemented a lifelong interest.
Then the April 8 1998 Birmingham F5 I remember watching TV coverage of, and eight days later remember hiding in the basement for a supercell that wound up producing a tornado a few miles away that knocked over a dozen trees at my aunt's house. So that spawned an interest in tornadoes as well.
A couple years later or so, got accidentally locked outside at a church before Vacation Bible School during either a microburst or an extraordinarily long lasting and violent gust front (family worked at VBS and got there before the doors were unlocked, just as a severe storm arrived) and had to grapple my way around the church to an unlocked front door in blinding dust and wind, before VBS was cancelled that night due to power outages and local damage. That terrified me of wind for many many years to come.
The February 16 2001 derecho certainly made me fear linear storms even without tornadoes with its swath of extremely strong winds that sent me hiding, and the November 24 outbreak that year sent an entire panicked youth camping group and their parents into our basement to hide as the Kennedy F3 dissipated only a few miles west of us; the fear and panic in people forced to shelter from a confirmed tornado sticks with you.
Then the night of November 10 2002 cemented fate permanently as the back to back F3s in Walker County wiped out homes of friends, neighbors, and swaths of very familiar roads once tree-covered with old houses that I had been used to growing up. The Carbon Hill F3 passed a mile from where we were living and debris fell in the yard, and the Saragossa F3 passed a mile from grandparents. They could feel a pressure drop and clearly hear the roar and the snapping pines from their basement. At 11 years old helping friends dip their few surviving belongings out of a pond next to their completely leveled house leaves a huge impression.
Severe fear of wind took some counseling and several years to get over, and Hurricane Ivan didn't help, but the process of obsessively studying weather to learn about those things certainly cemented a lifelong interest.
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I have been banned from everywhere else. Why? Because I have an atypical approach. Climatology is just an average. Solar activity lacks long term correlation. Sometimes the 500 mb trof sets up east of Baltimore and we end up with 3.5 inches of snow.
Myself and Earnest Hemingway have one thing in common, sometime we drink too much.
I remember the great tornado outbreak in the early 70's. I remember the great Arctic outbreak of 85 and the alll-time record low or -8F in Greensboro NC.
I remember the five feet of snow in Baltimore in 09-10, and the 30 inches in 2016. I am an old man.
I am here because that's where I landed. That's not a bad thing. The audience must be able to handle truth. If I post something to Abstract, I would hope the moderators would simply delete it. These can appear as noise, but I'm simply on a different level.
Let's hope there will not be too many deaths this year. It was a warm winter. Anomalies beget anomalies.
Myself and Earnest Hemingway have one thing in common, sometime we drink too much.
I remember the great tornado outbreak in the early 70's. I remember the great Arctic outbreak of 85 and the alll-time record low or -8F in Greensboro NC.
I remember the five feet of snow in Baltimore in 09-10, and the 30 inches in 2016. I am an old man.
I am here because that's where I landed. That's not a bad thing. The audience must be able to handle truth. If I post something to Abstract, I would hope the moderators would simply delete it. These can appear as noise, but I'm simply on a different level.
Let's hope there will not be too many deaths this year. It was a warm winter. Anomalies beget anomalies.
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I appreciate honesty and not going to lie, I like your music selections. We have a music thread where you can post as many videos as you like. Just give a quick description of why you think that is a good song for a particular situation. I'm going to move a few of your posts over there.
xJownage
Member
Ironically...Storm chasers. I remember 2009 when I was 11 and discovering it. My first thought was wow, this is pretty awesome. After the 2011 season I took a deep dive into tornado science in particular. Found a passion - and something I have oddly good instincts for.
CheeselandSkies
Member
Wow, @Equus, that's quite a series of stories!
One of the first things that got me interested in severe weather was a children's book about tornadoes that I read in the second grade. I forget the title, but it featured storm chasers Tim Marshall and Roy Britt, and the story of a tornado that abruptly shifted direction and chased them.
I loved watching the Weather Channel as a kid, as that was during it's '90s heyday with John Hope and later Steve Lyons covering tropical cyclones.
Ironically my interest in weather was already long-standing when I had my own "event," the house where my parents and I were living was nearly hit by the Stoughton, WI F3 of August 18, 2005, just before I left for my sophomore year of college. Before taking cover I saw the violently churning clouds associated with the "tornado cyclone" almost overhead, and pieces of debris floating in the sky, but the actual funnel was obscured by the trees that surround our house (several of which were broken/felled by the inflow jet and/or RFD).
I've since dabbled in storm chasing, although my chase "career" is mostly a string of painful busts (the most painful are Pilger, NE 2014, a poorly considered decision to change targets while en route put me just enough further away to not be able to catch up to the storm until 30 minutes after the four-EF4 show ended; and Rochelle, IL 2015 when I threw in the towel on the day and went home after being about 20 miles from where the EF4 would touch down two hours later). All I have to show for it tornado-wise are a look at the wall of rain surrounding what was the Sublette, IL EF2 of June 2015 and a brief glimpse of a nocturnal tornado near Hanna City, IL in March 2016.
One of the first things that got me interested in severe weather was a children's book about tornadoes that I read in the second grade. I forget the title, but it featured storm chasers Tim Marshall and Roy Britt, and the story of a tornado that abruptly shifted direction and chased them.
I loved watching the Weather Channel as a kid, as that was during it's '90s heyday with John Hope and later Steve Lyons covering tropical cyclones.
Ironically my interest in weather was already long-standing when I had my own "event," the house where my parents and I were living was nearly hit by the Stoughton, WI F3 of August 18, 2005, just before I left for my sophomore year of college. Before taking cover I saw the violently churning clouds associated with the "tornado cyclone" almost overhead, and pieces of debris floating in the sky, but the actual funnel was obscured by the trees that surround our house (several of which were broken/felled by the inflow jet and/or RFD).
I've since dabbled in storm chasing, although my chase "career" is mostly a string of painful busts (the most painful are Pilger, NE 2014, a poorly considered decision to change targets while en route put me just enough further away to not be able to catch up to the storm until 30 minutes after the four-EF4 show ended; and Rochelle, IL 2015 when I threw in the towel on the day and went home after being about 20 miles from where the EF4 would touch down two hours later). All I have to show for it tornado-wise are a look at the wall of rain surrounding what was the Sublette, IL EF2 of June 2015 and a brief glimpse of a nocturnal tornado near Hanna City, IL in March 2016.
