What Began Your Interest in Hurricanes?

[LSU_Weatherguy]

Andrew 92 ---- and then again having to work outside in the wind and rain for a week with TS Allsion

[TSmith274]

Funny someone mentioned Juan... that's when I first became interested... I was 7 I believe. I guess tracking something so important for so many people's lives gives you a sense of challenge and interest. At the heart of it, that's what it's about to me. Taking in all of the complex data and putting your own mind to it is interesting and entertaining to me, but especially for hurricanes... because there is just so much riding on the outcome.

The excitement has been replaced with dread since Katrina, as so many others have mentioned. I just never thought that something like a weather event would ever affect every aspect of my life in such a profound way. The aftermath is so intertwined with my life still, and I fear it will for many years to come. The fire is still there to track hurricanes, but this year will be difficult because of what my city has been through. That said, I'll be here for as long as this board is around... I guess nothing will kill the interest.

[EDR1222]

Hurricane David in 1979 which was my 1st real threat living in SE Florida.

David was my first experience as well, although I do not remember much. Hurricane Erin in 1995, probably was the first one that got me really interested in hurricanes.

[Javlin]

Funny someone mentioned Juan... that's when I first became interested... I was 7 I believe............ Now TS I always thought you were alittle older?anyway I was in N.O. that day Juan came in.My wife and I had gotten a free room at the Hilton on Poydras that Sat.night and we went to go see the Saints play the Giants that Sunday.During the game they were putting up the warnings on the TV.Let me tell ya getting back to the hotel with my in-laws was quite an experience.It was seriously tuff to go in between those buildings we all laughed at ourselves when we finally made it "wet as a fish".

[BayouVenteux]

Funny someone mentioned Juan... that's when I first became interested... I was 7 I believe............ Now TS I always thought you were alittle older?anyway I was in N.O. that day Juan came in.My wife and I had gotten a free room at the Hilton on Poydras that Sat.night and we went to go see the Saints play the Giants that Sunday.During the game they were putting up the warnings on the TV.Let me tell ya getting back to the hotel with my in-laws was quite an experience.It was seriously tuff to go in between those buildings we all laughed at ourselves when we finally made it "wet as a fish".

HA! I was at that game too. Do you remember how at the end of the game (yet another defeat for the Black & Gold) the Saints' P.A. guy politely announced that hurricane had formed in the gulf? As soon as everyone tried to make their way out into the ground level parking lots they discovered that they were under 6 or 7 inches of water amidst the ongoing deluge.

Should have known something was up when I drove across 12 Mile Bridge that morning and saw the whitecaps crashing spray over the interstate.

[Javlin]

HA! I was at that game too.......Thats neat Bayou if I remember the game was half way close alot of fun.Do you remember those winds whipping when we came out Geez that was cool.

[BayouVenteux]

HA! I was at that game too.......Thats neat Bayou if I remember the game was half way close alot of fun.Do you remember those winds whipping when we came out Geez that was cool.

Yeah, after about an hour or so of standing around in the crowd, everybody in my group finally got tired of waiting it out in the 'Dome and just slogged on out into the wind, rain, and standing water. You're right, it was pretty nasty! Wasted a decent pair of shoes, but all in all it was a good day. Brunch with friends at the old (pre-Emeril) Delmonico on St. Charles, and then the game.

[wayne56]

My Farther was stationed at Homestead AFB in 1971. The attendant orientation about the dangers of hurricanes started my interest in maps and tracking these systems. It was a natural progression from there to be a Geospatial Analysts, but also I have a strong interest in Tropical Meteorology. These days my charts and maps adorn the walls of my house.

[beachbum_al]

I became fascinated with weather when I was a kid in 1979 after hurricane frederic slammed into my area. Instead of being scared I wanted to know how the storm worked and why it did the destruction it did.

[bvigal]

Small child - tornadoes terrified me, which grew into a fascination of severe storms. Our town had fatalities once, and then again after I became a skywarn spotter and EOC dispatcher.

Cousins in Biloxi were in a hurricane, and we were REALLY worried for a while. I think that was Betsy, because they moved to Missouri before Camille. My grandparents lived in Houston, and some cousins in New Orleans, during a couple more hurricane threats, which we also watched closely.

My well-developed interest in hurricanes turned into an addition when friends went missing in Mitch. From then on, if it's in the Atlantic Basin, I'm watching.

[benny]

From Javlin about Saints vs. Giants and Juan...

That is amazing that you remember that game and have similar memories to me. In fact 1985 was the year that got me interested in hurricanes. I went to the Saints/Giants game... very close to Halloween that year. I will never forget the drive back across Lake Pontchartrain that nite.. the spray was so high it was washing across the Causeway!!! yipes. I do remember that nite clearly. Of course the Saints lost to a team that had like 5 field goals.. maybe the score was 15-13. It was a painful defeat.

I wonder how many meteorologists from the New Orleans area were created by 1985 (or that game in general) and I wonder how many will be motivated by 2004/2005!! We'll see that crop of kids in about 10-15 years...

[LSU2001]

I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf coast (pascagoula) in the aftermath of Camille. I was 7 when camille hit and I remember the fear and apprehension that my family was going through. After Camille I vividly remember tracking storms with my grandparents and hearing the stories about Camille and sometimes Betsy. I also remember going to Bloxi to watch the HUrricane Hunters fly in and out of Keesler AFB. I guess my alot of my childhood was spent watching weather and canes. I have now been through Camille, Andrew, Katrina, Rita and countless TS and mild hurricanes though I no longer live on the coast. Here in BAton Rouge we are affected by storms just not to the extent that the coast is. Anyway, I grew up watching storms and I continue that till this very day. Oh yeah I have an August Birthday too. lol
TIm

Ps. I guess the most vivid memory I have of Recent storms is sitting in Tiger Stadium and Hearing the PA guy announce that I-10 had been closed into NOLA and was only open out bound. This was during the IVAN evac.

[alicia-w]

being stuck on sanibel island as a kid during a storm.....

[hurricanesurvivor]

I went through Betsy as a child but don't remember it. The first hurricane I really remember was Camille. We lived in New Orleans, but evacuated to Picayune to stay with my grandparents. BIG mistake. The eye ended up going directly over Picayune and didn't even affect our home in New Orleans! We moved to Picayune about 10 years after that and now I've had countless storms go over us. Sometimes I think Picayune is a magnet for hurricanes...we've had the eye of Camille, Elena and Katrina and been brushed by numerous others. Just this past season we had to prepare for Cindy, Dennis (which missed us, thankfully), Katrina and Rita.

For all my interest in hurricanes, this past year was the first time I really got tired of having to fight the crowds and get my hurricane supplies. I won't ever do it again, though. The next hurricane that comes, I'm outta here!

[george_r_1961]

I think Camiile sparked my interest. I was 8 years old then and remember the news images of the storm and its aftermath along the gulf coast. With a tracking map given to me the local NWS office and a plastic overlay I began my life as a weather nerd. My addiction was fueled by the internet and of course Storm2k and when a storm threatens anywhere in the Atlantic Basin its a sure bet that I will forgo sleep and food and devote every waking moment I have to tracking the storm.

[rainstorm]

floyd in 1999. i just moved here

[Calasanjy]

Like the first poster in this topic, 1995's Hurricane Felix is the one that sparked my interest. Before then, I thought hurricanes were rare events and I automatically associated the word "hurricane" with "Andrew". I would have been 5 in 1992 when Andrew hit, so I guess that was the first serious one that I was aware of.

Anyway, Felix destroyed our vacation in the Outer Banks in 1995 when I was eight. I remember complaining and trying to convince my family not to leave since it was only a One by the time the evacuation orders were issued. However, they ignored my pleas and heeded the evacuation orders. I remember being incensed when hearing that the storm had veered out to sea a few days later, without causing significant damage to the coastline. All that chaos for nothing.

I'm at a disadvantage because the storms are usually nothing more than depressions or weak tropical storms by the time they reach my area. There have been several in recent years, including Isabel of 2003 and Ivan of 2004, both of which triggered significant flooding in my area. Also, the local TV stations cut into programming during Ivan to broadcast tornado warnings (which are a rare occurrence in my area). They were making a big deal about the appearance of a Tornado Vortex Signature in an adjacent county, but it was a false alarm.

Nevertheless, ever since Felix I have been a tropical cyclone fanatic and follow every basin intensely. For some peculiar reason, although the Atlantic storms directly impact my area, the Southern Hemisphere has become my favorite area to monitor and research. I even took my screen name from the name of a cyclone that struck Madagascar in early 1989. Anyway, that's the story about my fascination with the tropics, and it hasn't shown any sign of diminishing throughout its ten-year history.

[wayne56]

In 1971 my dad was stationed at Homestead AFB. We moved from Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas. Weather had caught my interest with violent thunderstorms and the nightly lightning displays on the west Texas plains. The AF sent our family a welcome package, which included a hurricane tracking chart. I was hooked from day one.
I tracked hurricane Agnes in 1972 from birth to decay over New England. I have continued to learn and study tropical meteorological on all fronts in university life and with the government. I became an intelligence officer in the federal government and recently retired after 31+ years. I am still taking college courses for enrichment. Never stop learning.

[tatertawt24]

For some reason I've always loved it when the power goes out. Even back when I was a toddler, whenever we had a thunderstorm, I would pray that we'd lose electricity lol. Then in Isabel we lost electricity for a week and had to end up staying in a hotel, which was even more exciting, so I probably grew a fondness for hurricanes right then.

Yet at the same time my #1 fear as a child was tornadoes, which in turn led to my being fascinated by them. During the remnants of Ivan, my dad had seen a tornado, which for some reason I had never heard about until he mentioned it in a conversation one day back in spring of 2005. The rest of that spring was dominated by my interest in tornadoes, which of course led to me reading a few things here and there about hurricanes.

But, by the end of the spring, I had run out of tornado pictures to gawk at on Google Images, so I started shifting my attention towards hurricanes... and, as we all know, I couldn't have picked a better summer to start developing an interest.

[CFLHurricane]

Growing up in tornado alley did it for me. The adrenaline rush of the oncoming storm, the eerie silence, the pounding rain, the crack of lightning, the over-excited meteorologists, the kalidescope of clouds hovering above. I try to fully appreciate the beauty of all weather types- sun, rain, wind, or snow.

Now that I am in hurricane alley, the idea that I could be enveloped in one of nature's most majestic spectacles is exciting to me, and all I've learned from this community helps maximize my appreciation of it all