As twitter user ‏@AaronNagler tweeted on Sunday, January 15th, 2017, “This is disconcerting.”

On this particular night, as the Dallas Cowboys and Greenbay Packers were finishing their drama-filled match-up at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, there was a lot of drama heading there way in the form of severe wx.

A storm system that had already brought ice and freezing rain to parts of the midwest, forcing the NFL to delay an earlier NFL match-up in Kansas City for several hours, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs, was now starting to produce severe wx in the Dallas area.

Shortly after the game ended, a tornado warning was issued for the Dallas area, including where the stadium was located, forcing stadium officials to post on the jumbotron, “please take shelter.” Fans were told to stay inside the stadium because of the wx.

According to NFL reporter Jane Slater (@SlaterNLF on twitter), “Dak [Cowboys’ quarterback] and Zeke [Cowboys’ running back] stuck inside stadium too because of tornado giving some levity to this situation lingering fans cheering for them”

Here’s story from USA Today.

As a met, this can be one of the scariest situations to cover because you potentially have thousands of additional people on area roads and highways, unaware of the threatening wx situation, and it may be hard to reach them.

It turns out on the particular day and into next day, 6 tornadoes were confirm across central and northern Texas. This is the report from the National Weather Service (NWS).

I would encourage anyone, while you are attending big or major sporting or outdoor events, and enjoying yourself, to make sure you stay aware of the wx.

Did you watch the 2017 Golden Globes?

Well, I did, and I have to say it was pretty entertaining. From watching the awards given out, to hearing the impassioned speeches, to being introduced to new and cool shows and movies, it was fun to watch. And Jimmy Fallon, while we didn’t see him a lot, did hit the right note with hosting the awards show.

First, that “cold open” for the telecast was great. If you were/are a fan of the movie La La Land, you really appreciated it, but even if your weren’t, you probably enjoyed the many actors and actresses featured in the “open”, from Mr. Robots‘ Rami Malek to Arrivals‘ Amy Adams to the kids from Stranger things to Game of Thrones‘ Kit Harrington. Along with this, I really enjoyed the music, which comes directly from La La Land.

Also, the moment Jimmy and Justin Timberlake began dancing was hilarious.

And ironically, as Jimmy started his monologue, the prompter went down, bringing back memories of the technical difficulties Mariah Carey faced on  New Year’s Eve in December. The Golden Globes telecast is actually produced by the same company that produces New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest. Jimmy would later tease about “mariah calling him” in regards to his prompter issues.

I look forward to seeing what other opportunities come Jimmy Fallon’s way.

 

Congrats to Jimmy Kimmel for being chosen to host the 89th Academy Awards (Oscars) on February 26th, 2017.

I am a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel and the Jimmy Kimmel show. Usually whenever I watch it, I am thoroughly entertained, especially when it comes to his monologues and mean kids segments. They are hilarious.

One of the most memorable and touching moments that came from the show, for me at least, occurred back in August 2011, when Jimmy gave a tribute to his “Uncle Frank”, Jimmy’s actual uncle and a member of the show, who had recently passed away.

This is a clip I was able to find on youtube.

The raw emotion that Jimmy showed, while at the same time being human and funny, sealed the deal for me. I am forever a fan.

One other thing I appreciate about Jimmy is that he consistently teases local news stations in Los Angeles whenever they dramatize the local wx, especially when it comes to rain. As you would imagine, the wx is pretty nice most of the time in LA

Here are a couple of clips:

So as Jimmy prepares to host the Oscars, I wish him the best of luck and I will definitely be watching. And maybe he will sprinkle in a little wx too. 🙂

Heading toward the first full weekend of January 2017, a strong winter storm was forecast to develop and eventually impact much of the eastern United States. This storm could impact millions of people and bring a significant amount of snow, ice and cold to places that rarely receive these types of wx. This was a BIG DEAL, and hundreds, potentially thousands, of mets across the country treated this as such, warning the public of the threat. And every met, and his or her mother, were watching the models to see where the storm would go.

This was no easy storm to forecast. Initial wx models took the storm farther north, meaning the impacts would be farther north. Then, as the event got closer, wx models took the storm farther south, meaning wx impacts would be farther south. Typically wx models and forecaster have greater accuracy as the wx event gets closer, and with the shifting of the models with just a few days to go, this led many mets to have greater confidence that storm would actually bring significant snow and cold farther south. For instance, there were freezing rain advisories as far south as the suburbs of Mobile, AL. This meant that stations all across the east coast and Southeast were taking this storm seriously.

Unfortunately, the storm’s path in the end took a more northerly track, bringing less than the expected amounts of snow to areas in the Southeast and more snow to areas of the Northeast. For North Carolina, from Raleigh south and east, more sleet than anything else fell, and this “busted” forecast for Raleigh, as observed by many viewers and residents of the area, UPSET a lot of folks. And they didn’t hold back.

Here are some of the comment from WRAL’s online webpage used to provide updates on the storm:

Fortunately, one person did come to the defense of the WRAL weather team:

And the WRAL Chief met Greg Fischel defended himself, and his wx team, saying on twitter after the storm,

“To all my detractors, more than 24 hours ago I began talking about how this snow event could go up in smoke. I try to be honest-all I can do.” -@gbfischel

And while I didn’t watch the news in Raleigh, I do believe that he, and others, did warn people of the potentials with this storm. Greg Fischel is an excellent met, and the good ones know to communicate the uncertainty with any storm, especially the major ones. With that being said, a challenge does comes with effectively reaching and communicating forecast changes to viewers.

When there are graphics like this (sent to me by a friend in living in the Raleigh area), from another media outlet:

I think it would be hard for any viewer to get this graphic out their head.

In my professional career, I have gotten a few comments about “busted” forecasts, but it comes with the territory as a met. Mets know this. With any big event, or with any forecast, you won’t please everyone, but you have a clear conscience when you know you have done your best and communicated the uncertainties with the wx.

As the one commenter said, “wx forecasting is not an exact science.”

For me, its a science and an art.

I recently watched the first season of AMC’s “Better Call Saul” series. Its a spin-off from the epic and very successful “Breaking Bad” series from the same network.

“Better Call Saul” follows the life of Jimmy McGill (also known as “Saul” in the series) and his trials and tribulations as a criminal lawyer in the time leading up to him establishing his strip-mall law office in Albuquerque, New Mexico (IMDB).

Overall, its a great show. Bob Odenkirk, who plays Jimmy/Saul, does a terrific job. I definitely recommend watching it, but I mention this show because episode 9, titled “Pimento,”  really resonated with me and how it pertains to mets and wx people working in the media industry.

 

A little back story, and bare with me:

At this point in the season ,and during this particular episode, Jimmy has found and started to built a potentially multi-million dollar case against a corporation that runs several senior living communities around the county. It turns out this corporation was grossly over-charging their senior residents ($5 dollars for 1 roll of toilet paper, as an example). Jimmy brings this case to his brother, Chuck, who is a brilliant lawyer and partner at a successful law firm, but has been on medical leave from the firm for a year or so.

Chuck quickly realizes that he and Jimmy will need a lot more help with a case of this magnitude, so he convinces Jimmy to pitch this case to Chuck’s law firm, “HHM”. Jimmy, knowing this case is huge and extremely valuable, wants to use it to obtain an actual position at the firm, which, according to Jimmy, would be a normal thing for a law firm to do for a lawyer bringing such a case. But during the meeting, one of the partners tells him that wouldn’t be happening. This totally upsets Jimmy, and he has a few choice words with the partner. Chuck even mentions that he didn’t understand the decision. Jimmy then refuses to hand over his case to the firm. Jimmy later finds out that he’s actually been sabotaged by Chuck. Chuck made a call to the same law partner from the meeting, the night before, while Jimmy was sleeping, advising not to hire Jimmy. Jimmy confronts Chuck about this.

Jimmy ask Chuck, “why?” And Chuck’s response is pretty cold:

“You’re not a real lawyer. University of American Samoa, for Christ’s sake. An online course? What a joke. I worked my ass off to get where I am. And you take these shortcuts and you think suddenly you’re my peer? You do what I do because you’re funny and you can make people laugh? I committed my life to this! You don’t slide into it like a cheap pair of slippers and reap all the rewards.”

After a little back and forth, Chuck then says:

“…The law is sacred! If you abuse that power, people get hurt. This is not a game. You have to know… On some level, I know you know I’m right. You know I’m right.” 

This is an issue I know many wx people without actual wx or wx-related degrees face, especially those who get online wx certificates. These individuals can sometimes be seen as not “real” mets. That they took a shortcut to get to a destination actual mets took years to get to. That they are all personality with no substance. That they are a joke. That they won’t take the wx seriously or have respect for the field. That they will mislead people by giving bad information, whether its a bad weather forecast or bad science information in general.

And particularly when it comes to misinformation, in this day and age of “fake news”, potentially hundreds, thousands or even millions can be misled by false or incorrect information.

As Chuck mentioned with the law, wx is serious. People’s lives can depend on the accuracy and proper communication of wx information, especially during severe wx.

And, as you can imagine, its not easy to obtain an actual met or wx-related degree. In most programs, before you even get to an actual met course, you have to get through several semesters of calculus, vector calculus, ordinary and partial deferential equations, chemistry and calculus-based physics. Then comes the intense met courses, from atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric dynamics to synoptic meteorology, thermodynamics, and many more. From my experience, and from speaking with others, usually the math in the early years is what decides whether a student will make it through to earn a met degree. These facts make earning an online weather certificate that is not as intense as an actual 4-year bachelor’s met program more appealing. With this fact you can also understand why some degreed meteorologist my take offense to those folks that call themselves mets yet don’t have an actual bachelor’s degree to back it up.

Fortunately though, I have learned that wx people can be just as effective at analyzing and communicating wx information as many degreed mets. Plenty of professionals without a degree treat the work of a met very seriously. They study the data, and forecast, or work closely with actual mets to make sure they communicate the wx accurately.

For example, many wx people that train through Mississippi State’s online weather certificate program, which doesn’t have a math requirement, have found success working as broadcast mets and are very effective.

This episode of “Better Call Saul” showed that Jimmy, even though he earned his law degree online, from an overseas university, still did the job well, and well enough to put together a legit multi-million dollar case.

This blog post is not meant to say, “hey, I don’t need a wx degree to be a met.” I appreciated earning my weather degrees. It gave me a deep understand of the science and the field, and I encourage others to obtain actual wx degrees, but I hope this post does make it clear that people without actual wx degrees can do good work.

The full script from episode 9 of “Better Call Saul” can be found here.

 

Times Square in New York City is one of the most visited places in the world, especially on New Year’s Eve. Millions of people show up to Times Square to celebrate the New Year. And this year I made my way to Times Square to visit before all of the madness would begin.

The day started out cold but with a beautiful sunrise. That sunrise was what helped me get over the fact that I was up at 6:45 AM on a Saturday morning when I didn’t have to go to work. I was up that early because I was scheduled to meet a photographer in Times Square that would take me to see the top of 1 Times Square and the New Year’s Eve Ball. Gotta work those connections!

To get to the city, I took the Metro North rail from Westchester County to Grand Central Station, before hoping on the subway. I arrived at 7:50 AM, and once out of the subway, all I noticed were street closures, barricades and police. Obviously with security being of most concern, the police were out in full force. Surprisingly though, there were very few people in Times Square which made it easy to walk around.

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Because I had some time to kill, I made my way to 45th street and Broadway to take in the scenery and record a video. At that point, I noticed what looked like tourists taking advantage of the road closures by standing in the street and recording video and taking pictures themselves.

Once 8:30 AM hit, I made my way to the top of 1 Times Square. And it was a cool sight to take in.

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When you make it to the top of the building the first thing you notice is the New Year’s Eve Ball and its huge! It weighs more than 11 thousand pounds, has a diameter of 12 feet, and is covered with more than 2,600 Waterford crystals. Here is a link to facts about this year’s ball.

This wasn’t my first time visiting the top of 1 Times Square. I had the opportunity to live produce the New Year’s Eve GMA weather broadcast from this location for a couple of years. It was generally was a fun time but the wind up there could make it a cold time as well.

I remember one particular year I kept making the mistake of walking through the Canada Television Broadcast. Talking about feeling like an idiot. They were positioned right where people had to walk to get to the stairs that would led you into the building. I felt so bad about that. But hey, life happens.

On this visit, along with the ball, I noticed a camera crew and reporter getting ready for a live broadcast with one of the news networks. I made sure I didn’t randomly walk through their shot. Once they were finished, I was able to watch workers test the NYE Ball and take a few pictures.

Around 10:30 AM, I made my way back down to the street, heading for the Levi Store in Times Square. Before I went to see the ball, I spotted a “50% off” sign in the store window and made a note to check it out. I thought to myself, “Yes!!”. OK, I like Levi’s. Don’t judge me. Also, mets shop too!

This is where I ran into some “people traffic” and it was serious. Clearly a lot more people had made there way to the “Crossroads of America” over the 2.5 hours I there. But I was determined to get to the store.

I made it but it was a futile cause as the sale didn’t included the items I actually would have purchased. The struggle was real.

But I made my back out into the crowds and realized that it was probably time for me to get out of dodge before the real crowds moved in.

Here is a link to the video I made of my day in Times Square on New Year’s Eve