So how did you get started with weather as a hobby?

[audioguy3107]

Ok, so I thought I'd start a thread where the SE crew can tell how he or she got interested in this hobby, thought it might make for some interesting stories to see how everyone here got interested in winter storms, model watching, severe weather, etc.  I'll kick it off......

 

We were either in the 2nd or 3rd grade, can't remember which.  One of the kids in our class dad was the lead (I think) forecaster here at FFC, I believe he retired some time ago.  He set up a field trip to tour the NWS service office here in Atlanta.  I don't remember much of it, but what I do remember is that they took us all in some kind of film room and showed us an educational video on tornadoes and then capped it off with a film called "Terrible Tuesday", which was the story of the great Wichita Falls, TX tornado of 1979.  

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Red_River_Valley_tornado_outbreak

 

At that time it was one of the most well studied and filmed tornadoes of all time.  I thought that video was unbelievably cool for some reason and have been hooked ever since.  That's why I usually just follow along during winter systems but post much more during severe weather season.  Ever since that trip one of my best friends and I followed probably every severe weather outbreak since, I clearly remember the afternoon in March 1984 of the Carolina outbreak coming home from school after the sirens turned off as the system moved off toward the South Carolina border.  We used to go outside during every severe thunderstorm/tornado warning to see what we could see.  The cool thing is, he actually followed his interests and eventually graduated from UGA and then went out to Norman, OK and got his met degree from OU.  After graduating, he got to work with Gary England and I still remember talking to him on the phone the evening of March 3, 1999 during the Moore, OK tornado.  He was still in school that day and working about 2 miles away from the damage path, he had no power and I was giving him the scoop of what was going on via TWC and CNN.  Anyway, that's what got me started and have been hooked ever since.  Was planning on doing a chase trip out the plains one of these days.  

[dsaur]

Sleet storm around 59 or 60.  I've told the story before.  Blew my mind, and I've followed weather, especially winter weather, ever since. Always gather up every little bit of info I can find, particularly in winter time, but all anomalous weather fascinates me, from big winds to fast clouds, huge snowflakes to epic flooding I love to watch the weather...and I'm outside a lot..... so record heat, not as much, lol.  This site is a wonder in time saving access.    T

[SnowDeac]

Was in a tornado when I was a baby in the outbreak that hit Raleigh in 11/88. Parents didn't tell me about it until I was older and started hearing about it from friends who knew the story, so I wouldn't be afraid of storms. I now love storms of all kinds, and am not afraid of tornadoes, but certainly dread ever being in one again after my mom's account of the '88 outbreak. Our two story brick house was competely gone, other than the front stoop. We're all very lucky to be alive, let alone to have escaped virtually unscathed.

[WestWind]

As a child, I always liked science.  I used to try to make barometers out of balloons and jars or straws, bottles, and clay.  When I was in 1st or 2nd grade, my parents gave me a real barometer as a reward for doing well at some school task.  By junior high school, I was always called "weatherman" by the other kids and even the principal.  Even a year after I graduated from high school, I got a call from the high school principal who was trying to decide whether to hold graduation outside or inside and wanted my prediction on the weather. 

 

My parents mostly encouraged my interest in science (my father was an engineer).  However, neither of my parents ever really understood my fascination with storms.  When I was small I used to roll up newspapers in the shape of a tornado and play with it.  I remember my father said to me "Some day you'll see a real tornado, and then you won't think its so fun."  Well, it was almost 40 years later when I actually did see one in person (on a storm chase tour).  My father is still alive and still does not understand.  He once said "I wouldn't go across the street to see a tornado, much less across the country!"  However, he is interested in weather statistics I come across in my research and also often asks me questions pertaining to the weather in his area.  He is always asking me how the National Weather Services makes forecasts, how the accuracy today compares with the past, and what caused a particular forecast to be wrong.

[rosie]

Back in the early 60's listening to reports on my transistor radio, fascinated by hurricanes growing up in S FL and winter weather when I moved out of state.

[DopplerWx]

Waking up Jan 25th 2000 to a yard full of snow, about 9".  Been hooked ever since.

[NGTim]

February 1973, small town in South Georgia.  Second grade.  Teacher said: "come look out the window".  we went over to those old timey windows that pivoted outward from the bottom, looked up through the window and saw these huge funny looking white things falling out of the sky.  That image is as clear in my mind today as it was then.   By the time they called our parents to come get us, the ground was covered.  I distinctly remember some older gentleman telling people to let air out of their tires for traction. (mind you this was middle/southen Ga, and he sounded like a grizzled snow veteran to me at the time).  Not sure why that sticks in my mind.  Anyway, it snowed 3 days, and totalled about 18 inches imby.  In my memory, snow was up to my waist, but thats probably an exaggeration.  Ever since then, any weather forecast with 20% chance of snow flurries on day 5 has me at rapt attention.   Its in my blood.  It's never happened again, and I wonder if it ever will.  I file it in my memory bank with things like watching Evil Kneivel jumping over a bunch of cars, being mesmerized by a young Muhammad Ali fighting, and witnessing the GA Bulldogs taking the national championship in person in New Orleans in the 1980 season : things that I experienced while young, but had no idea that those might all be once in a lifetime things.  Let that be a lesson to you young whippersnappers out there. ;-)

 

I went back to that school last year and drove through that same spot where the parents were picking up their kids (me) in '73 and reminisced.  (everything was much smaller than what I remember)  ok, starting to get teary eyed. ;-)  

 

Edit: forgot to mention: I think it was the next year, a major tornado (don't remember the strength) went right through our downtown, and our town was on the CBS news.   I remember seeing the dark blue clouds on the horizon during the afternoon while coming home from school, like nothing I had ever seen.  My brother saw the tornado but I did not.   Those two events that close did it for me. 

[audioguy3107]

and witnessing the GA Bulldogs taking the national championship in person in New Orleans in the 1980 season : things that I experienced while young, but had no idea that those might all be once in a lifetime things.  

 

Great story.....especially the UGA part!  For gosh sakes let's hope that a national title isn't going to be a once in a lifetime event.    Dang Crimson Tide

[jburns]

I grew up in the Northeast.  When I was just a wee lad there was a 1000 foot glacier in my backyard. When I was about six it started to recede.  I was curious why that was happening.  Little did I know that the year before the glacier began receding was the last damn A+ winter I would see in my lifetime.

[bhamwx205]

easy...93

[WilkesboroDude]

Several things I guess...watching Lanie Pope on air talking about tornadoes. They seem to have slackened up though in central NC as of recent. Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Isabel maybe a few others. Summer storms and Winter weather too. 

[Disc]

Close encounter with lighting. Perhaps that's why severe weather fascinates me more than snow does.

[WilkesboroDude]

Close encounter with lighting. Perhaps that's why severe weather fascinates me more than snow does.

 

I love everything about severe weather but the lightning!   

[dsaur]

I grew up in the Northeast.  When I was just a wee lad there was a 1000 foot glacier in my backyard. When I was about six it started to recede.  I was curious why that was happening.  Little did I know that the year before the glacier began receding was the last damn A+ winter I would see in my lifetime.

You're so full of it it's causing a pressure wave   Let's get the real story GlacierBoy!  T

[jburns]

You're so full of it it's causing a pressure wave   Let's get the real story GlacierBoy!  T

 Can't.  The mammoth ate my homework.

[dsaur]

 Can't.  The mammoth ate my homework.

You Neanderthals ate the mammoths, remember?  T

[schlontz]

I got a degree in meteorology.  Most expensive hobby ever.

[Jon]

During the 08 hurricane season I saw someone from WRAL (can't remember what met) put up the tracks of Hurricane Ike and I wanted to know how to look at that myself and make my own "predictions" if you will. That's when I found easternuswx, then all the weather models and into that winter season...it was a perfect time because I saw hurricane models for a hurricane in Nov and a month later, winter weather threads! Hooked ever since. Can't believe its been that long...

[The Alchemist]

I moved from NJ to NC in 1990.  Such an awakening to the rhythms of nature.  I was fascinated with this world of weather you didn't really pay attention to living in an apartment in NJ.  Moving to the country and heating the house by firewood, made me realize that you have to pay attention to the weather in all it's forms.  Ice storms, severe storms and of course March 1993 are all personal lessons that my northern friends didn't understand... until "Sandy"

[K4CF]

As a young ham radio operator in the late 80s, I was intrigued hearing long distance "DX" stations during those rare VHF band openings.  Through research, I learned that VHF tropospheric ducting and Sporadic E-layer propagation were weather related so I was hooked on Wx from then on...and of course the '93 storm renewed my interest.  Any other hams on the SE forum?

[griteater]

Growing up, my brothers and I played a lot of sports...backyard, rec, school ball.  For whatever reason, football was the sport I always enjoyed the most.  Whenever it snowed, we would always play football in it, and it essentially combined a couple of first loves for me.  Going skiing in the 7th grade for the first time on Beech Mtn added to it...so bottom line, I always wanted to know when it was going to snow.  The first storm I recall as a young kid was the Feb 1979 storm that produced 10 inches in Charlotte with temperatures in the low teens, and would later become the President's Day Blizzard in the mid-atlantic.

[toxictwister00]

It started for me when I was 7 years old (1999) . I used to be scared of thunderstorms back then, but at the same time I was always curious as to how they come about. There's no particular storm or event that got me hooked, but the EF2 tornado that struck Atlanta in March 2008 got me interested in severe weather. It's true what they say, It DOES sound like a train about to ram right through your house. Luckily the only damage we had was extensive tree damage, some of our neighbors not as lucky having suffered house/tree damage. A few days later I found out the tornado touched down on a street adjacent to me. That experience gave me this very weird rush of excitement along with anxiety and fear over what I had just went through.

[audioguy3107]

It started for me when I was 7 years old (1999) . I used to be scared of thunderstorms back then, but at the same time I was always curious as to how they come about. There's no particular storm or event that got me hooked, but the EF2 tornado that struck Atlanta in March 2008 got me interested in severe weather. It's true what they say, It DOES sound like a train about to ram right through your house. Luckily the only damage we had was extensive tree damage, some of our neighbors not as lucky having suffered house/tree damage. A few days later I found out the tornado touched down on a street adjacent to me. That experience gave me this very weird rush of excitement along with anxiety and fear over what I had just went through.

That was a truly exciting weather weekend, I remember the golfball sized hail we got later that weekend from the numerous supercells that tracked across metro Atlanta. There have been close calls for the metro in the past, but that situation with the PDS watches and the number of classic supercells tha formed, it's a miracle none of them put down a strong tornado or two. I still kick myself for one thing that weekend.......my wife and I had a room booked at the Omni hotel the night of the EF-2 for the Hinman dental meeting....somethng came up that week and we had to cancel and stay home that night.....could've been right there in the middle of it but instead had to settle for second hand stories from all her colleagues that were there at the hotel......it was killin me!

[dsaur]

I'll never forget watching the show up there in Atl. that night.  Amazing lightening, and strange colors for night time illumination.  Those poison colors that let you know the monster is loose.   The whole north was exploding as it went across.  T

[Subtropics]

Hey y'all!

 

I have been into weather for as long as I can remember. The experience that solidified my fascination was when I saw my first waterspout. It was very scary to me at the time being only 3/4 a mile away and being on the bridge! I was 2 or 3 at the time.

 

My dream job would be to do what cantore does but I accept that to be unrealistic so I am going into consulting or high banking instead.

 

Nice to meet y'all!

[NCsandhills]

Hmm, started getting really into the scientific aspect of meteorology in 8th-9th grade, when we moved from boring 75 an sunny every day Los Angeles to 100 degrees and tornadoes in Arkansas.  Once I saw how cold it got in the winter (46/26 at coldest) I became obsessed with learning as much as I could. Although I do remember when I was a wee lad living in NJ I loved just watching the snow accumulate on our back deck, so I suppose I've always had a fascination witht he weather.  There's a 1993 VHS camcorder video of me staring out the front door of our house in Springfield, MA after like 21" fell.  I was like maybe 2 years old.  Haha.  Just staring at the snow.  I love the weather so much, and everything about it...I just wish I could visualize it more in my head and was better at math so I could turn it into a career.

[My Weather Today]

Ok, so I thought I'd start a thread where the SE crew can tell how he or she got interested in this hobby, thought it might make for some interesting stories to see how everyone here got interested in winter storms, model watching, severe weather, etc. I'll kick it off......

We were either in the 2nd or 3rd grade, can't remember which. One of the kids in our class dad was the lead (I think) forecaster here at FFC, I believe he retired some time ago. He set up a field trip to tour the NWS service office here in Atlanta. I don't remember much of it, but what I do remember is that they took us all in some kind of film room and showed us an educational video on tornadoes and then capped it off with a film called "Terrible Tuesday", which was the story of the great Wichita Falls, TX tornado of 1979.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Red_River_Valley_tornado_outbreak

At that time it was one of the most well studied and filmed tornadoes of all time. I thought that video was unbelievably cool for some reason and have been hooked ever since. That's why I usually just follow along during winter systems but post much more during severe weather season. Ever since that trip one of my best friends and I followed probably every severe weather outbreak since, I clearly remember the afternoon in March 1984 of the Carolina outbreak coming home from school after the sirens turned off as the system moved off toward the South Carolina border. We used to go outside during every severe thunderstorm/tornado warning to see what we could see. The cool thing is, he actually followed his interests and eventually graduated from UGA and then went out to Norman, OK and got his met degree from OU. After graduating, he got to work with Gary England and I still remember talking to him on the phone the evening of March 3, 1999 during the Moore, OK tornado. He was still in school that day and working about 2 miles away from the damage path, he had no power and I was giving him the scoop of what was going on via TWC and CNN. Anyway, that's what got me started and have been hooked ever since. Was planning on doing a chase trip out the plains one of these days.

The Moore, OK tornado was actually on May 3, 1999.

[audioguy3107]

The Moore, OK tornado was actually on May 3, 1999.

Oops.....yep, typo!

[Tlagon]

Two instances.   I grew up in Tampa, Florida and the first impact was watching news coverage of the 1974 super outbreak.  I was 10 years old and it scared the life out of me.  I still ocassionally have "tornado nightmares" because of it, though thankfully I've never experienced one first hand. 

 

Second was the Tampa snowfall of Janaury 1977.  The night before it snowed I had heard the temperature was going to drop below freezing overnight (but no mention of snow).  I set a bowl of water out on the front lawn to see if it would freeze.  The next morning my parents woke me up for school and told me to go check my bowl of water.  A groggy 13 year old went outside to see a frozen bowl of water and heavy snow falling.  There was a dusting on the ground and about 1/2" on the cars.  We did have school that day and everyone was scraping up snow off the grass and cars to have a once in a lifetime Florida snowball fight.  Most of the "snowballs" were half dirt and grass, but we didn't care - it was the first time most of us had ever seen snow.  Oddly enough, school was cancelled the NEXT day due to "cold weather" - it was 50 degrees and sunny by that afternoon.  I have been fascinated with snow and following the devlopment of snowstorms ever since.

[jburns]

Although at the age of 6 weeks it didn't initiate my interest in weather this was the first snowstorm of my life.  The photo is from NY City in Dec of 1947.  My folks lived un Union City, NJ which was on top of the palisades overlooking the city.  

 

 

 

 

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