STORM2K

Since we all post at a weather forum, what got you interested with weather/meteorology?

hurricanes

Just the winter and severe weather we get here in Ohio.

Hmmmm... it's been a long time ago now. I guess it was Hurricane Opal in 1995 that really started it. Things have really changed since then, I used to watch The Weather Channel all the time and then the internet came along and I have almost no use for them today.

To be frank, probably Hurricane Katrina. I really wasn't into weather before Katrina. Heh, a rare positive effect of Katrina I guess.

My interest came from severe weather, floods, and hurricanes.

My dad used to watch the weather channel (back in the 80's when it was good) all the time... I swear he used to watch it like it was a sitcom... So thats how I became such a weather nut... its just progressed over the years....

hurricanes did the trick for me.

Tornadoes..

My dad got me started in the 50's by putting on the tire chains and heading out into the snow when everyone else was in by the fireplace. Or when he would drive me to the highest hill in the area to watch a storm roll in. I studied weather in college, but the event that nailed me to watching the sky forever was witnessing the F4 tornado that killed 24 people and injured 450 in my home town. From that point on, I have had mercury in my blood and never miss a day of looking up to the sky and appreciating what is happening there.

Those things got me started. Mixing it up and actually meeting 100's of people like you, as well as sharing on places like S2k, those things have kept me going and going and going.....

Having experienced a dozen hurricanes, flooded yards, a tornado, blinding blizzards, a minor earthquake, and temps ranging from -34 to +104, I have a reasonable respect for how the weather affects me.

My grandpa told me a story about how he survived a destructive storm when I was young. It started it all.

I got interested out of an interest to avoid getting rained on when I'm out for a bike ride or biking to work. I would go to weather.com to see the local weather radar and then make a judgement whether it was safe. Those days with a POP of 30-50% are tough. My rule of thumb is that I'll bike it to work when the POP is 30% or less and the timing of the rain event is outside of commuting time. If I made it a habit to take more risk it would catch up to me before long.

It's a pain because my road bike has to get cleaned and overhauled after riding in the rain. This spring I'm going to convert my mountain bike to a commuter. It has sealed bearings so it can stand up to the rain a lot better. Maybe I'll increase my threshold to 40% POP.

Too much information, I know.

Brent wrote:Hmmmm... it's been a long time ago now. I guess it was Hurricane Opal in 1995 that really started it. Things have really changed since then, I used to watch The Weather Channel all the time and then the internet came along and I have almost no use for them today.

Same here.Opal was the first hurricane I've ever experienced here in Pensacola,ever since then I've been fascinated by hurricanes and just weather in general.

I moved to Florida.

Call me odd but all my memories from being younger are weather related. The 1990 Burns' Day Storm, early 1990s snow (Not seen snow like it since), the 1995 summer heat wave/drought, and the list goes on....

The severe Ohio Valley winters of 1976 and 1977. The Ohio River froze one of those winters! My interest began then but didn't really take off until I stumbled upon TWC's website (1999).

kevin wrote:I moved to Florida.

this too.

Hurricane Lili

would have the be a F-4 tornado that passed by my parents house by 5 miles when i was 9.It was part of the 1984 outbreak that featured more F-4's than any other.I remember finding debris in the woods around the house and i mean debris like garage doors and car hoods and BIG stuff to find.We had huge hail at my house and from then on when we had a storm i was always checking to see how big or bad it was or might be plus i am in a hurricane prone spot too and i started watching them.

Of note i built a house a few years ago that now stands in the damage path of that tornado if my house was here then it would have bore the brunt of the storm.

here is a small summary of that nights event from a website i found!

After a brief lull just northeast of Mount Olive in Wayne county, another F3 tornado touched down just southeast of Goldsboro and passed southeast of La Grange in Lenoir county, where 81 were injured around 2030 local time. As this tornado lifted, another even stronger tornado touched down just a few miles to the northeast of La Grange. This tornado was likely the most deadly and devastating of the day, as it ripped across northern Lenoir, central Greene, and into Pitt county between 2045 LST and 2055 LST. Six people lost their lives at Snow Hill in Greene county, two in Ayden, one in Winterville, and six on the east side of Greenville. In addition, the F4 tornado injured 153 and destroyed more than 300 homes as it’s path of destruction occasionally reached to more than 1200 yards wide