Christmas Parades
Cruising in the Starkville Christmas Parade
The most recent public appearance I was in was the Starkville Christmas parade. Unfortunately, there was a very cold light rain and drizzle at that time, so that undoubtedly kept some of the crowd at home. It also deterred us from letting the top down on our Mustang!
Bill Gamel and Siobhan Riley, an anchor and reporter, respectively, were in the car with me. I picked up the car from the dealership, so I got to drive. Bill is from Starkville and has been on TV in this area for ages, so lots of people were yelling his name, but I got my share of shout-outs! The above photo was taken by Claire Mattox of Aberdeen.
Christian Kirk and I went to Aberdeen for their Christmas parade last week, but it was rained out. We did not find this out until we got there. In total, we drove about two hours and I got to bed later than normal, but Christian and I had some good conversation in the car ride!
What Do I Do?
I just finished up posts about the six month anniversaries of my graduation and the historic April 27th tornado outbreak, so I thought you might want to know what I have been doing for the past six months. (Or maybe I am somewhat vain for thinking that. At least my family will get a good read out of it.)
Talking to a group of 1st graders in West Point about weather
I started interning at WCBI-TV in Columbus, MS in January of 2010 which was during my junior year of school. (The station is about 30 minutes from MSU.) I went in two mornings per week to intern under the morning guy, Jason Dunning. I forget what time I had to wake up in Starkville, but I was always in Columbus around 4:15 AM and left after the morning show so I could get back to a full day’s worth of classes. (As you will read in a minute, that hard work paid off!) Jason definitely taught me a lot while I was there, and I am grateful for the experience. After I had been there a few months, they started letting me do fill-in work, so that is where I made my live debut.
Fast forwarding about a year, I had been accepted to graduate school and was fairly set on going that route, but the News Director at WCBI offered me a job a couple of weeks before I was to graduate. After weighing the pros and cons, I decided I could not pass up the job. Several of my friends were going to move all over the country for jobs. I was born and raised in North Mississippi; It was too perfect to start out in an area I know and, most importantly to me, where all of my family could turn on the TV and watch me. I know the geography here well, so I was good fit. (Don’t get me wrong. I am definitely looking forward to spreading my wings at some point. I do want to experience life outside of the Magnolia State!) I’ll admit I was not too thrilled about starting to work full-time only two days after graduation. A little break would have been nice! But I won’t complain. (A couple of my classmates are still job hunting.)
Me with one of my 1st Time 4Casters...Fun segment!
I work Monday through Friday as the morning and noon meteorologist. I usually get to the station around 3:45 AM (thankfully I live a block away) to prepare for the three hour morning show. At first it felt like I was running a marathon, but now the three hours go by somewhat quickly, and I use every weather hit to try and improve. In addition to weather, I also record a weekly financial segment called Dollars & Sense where I interview a local financial analyst. I also have a weekly segment called Get Fit Fridays where I interview a local fitness guru. I usually go to the gym earlier in the week to get footage of whatever we are talking about to show during the live interview. Of course, I edit that myself and enjoy doing that. On Thursdays, I have the 1st Time 4Caster segment where a kid (4th-12th grade, usually) comes in and does a 3-Day forecast. Everyone loves the segment, and it is probably one of the highlights of my week. It has been great getting to work in several facets of the news business–not just weather. (However, when it comes down to it, I am a scientist/meteorologist, and that is my passion.
Being in a small-medium size market, I also have a lot of free reign. I build all of my shows and do not have to consult with others about graphics I use or areas of the country that I talk about. I also got together with our website guy and totally redesigned the weather page for our station. I put a LOT of effort into my work. I want the final product to look good, and I want to grow as much as I can while I am there and while I have the kind of creative freedom that has been given to me.
I have already had some neat opportunities. I got to introduce bands at a local festival, and I have spoken to school kids as well as senior citizens about weather. I’ll admit, I was more nervous about those school talks than I should have been, but they turned out fine, and I have enjoyed educating the public on a personal level about weather safety. And no, it still hasn’t gotten old getting recognized in public!
April 27th
If you Google “April 27th,” you will undoubtedly find links to articles and videos about a tornado outbreak in 2011. The 6th anniversary of the outbreak past a few days ago, and that is what has prompted me to write this. It was by all accounts a historic day.
I can recall sitting in some of my meteorology classes almost a week before the event looking at maps, knowing that severe weather was extremely likely. It was just a matter of how bad it was going to be. Even my professors were saying this was one to pay attention to.
I interned at WCBI during my junior year and did some fill-in work my senior year. The week of April 27th, I had already signed a contract to start working there upon graduation (April 30th). Jason, the morning meteorologist at the time, suggested that I come in on April 27th to help out. He mentioned I would monitor the NWS Chat and look at storm reports. He said they might put a mic on me to relay information. I was a bit nervous about that but knew covering severe weather is part of being a TV meteorologist.
I woke up in the early morning hours on April 27th–2 AM, maybe?–and turned on my TV to find Jason on doing coverage. I quickly got ready and drove to Columbus from Starkville. Rob, the chief, was still there from his shift the day before and looked very relived to see me walk into the studio so he could go home to get some rest. Jason was still on the wall, so I sat next to Alex, the weekend girl, who showed me how to navigate the radar system (Baron’s FasTrac).
Jason finally got a break, we had the normal WCBI Sunrise show, and then another round of severe weather started mid-morning. Jason initially did the wall-to-wall coverage, but Russ asked if I would be okay doing some, too. (He really just wanted some footage of me doing coverage for future promo material purposes since I was to start there full time in a few days.) Since it was only going to be for a few minutes, I agreed.
I recall feeling very in my element and not nearly a nervous as I had originally anticipated. Any nervousness stemmed from the weather situation, not being in front of the camera.
As many of you recall, there was a morning round of severe weather, and then there was the afternoon round. Since Jason had been at the station since the early morning hours and in front of the wall for a lot of those, he and I alternated coverage for the afternoon event. Rob eventually came back in, but that was mainly to relive Jason. I stayed in the studio. Even after Rob came back in, it felt like he only did coverage for 15 minutes before giving it back over to me. At one point I was the ONLY one in the studio. I had just learned to drive the radar system that day, and I had never done live severe weather coverage before then. The closest to the real thing I had gotten was doing mock coverage in labs for school. At one point I had some information pulled up on the radar that I couldn’t get to go away, so I had to say on air for Jason or Rob to come back in the studio so they could help me. I wasn’t quite sure why I was left alone. I guess I should take pride in the fact that they felt confident enough in me to broadcast life threatening information. Our signal goes out to roughly half a million people in North Mississippi and West Alabama. Jason did eventually come back and do more coverage and did a great job when our skycam picked up a tornado in Tuscaloosa.
Tornado warnings ended in our area around late afternoon. I remember being so relieved when the last warning expired and everything was in Alabama. However, the damage had been done. I remember my senior year thinking how excited I was about being a TV meteorologist, but the only thing I was unsure about was doing severe weather coverage. Hah! And it turns out that other than a few fill-in things I had done for them, my first day with WCBI, my first time to really make on entrance on TV–much less my first time to do live severe weather coverage–was April 27th.
I am grateful to have gotten the experience. I now feel like I can do any form of severe weather coverage and for any length of time. However, I am sorry the day had to happen. There were MULTIPLE EF-5 tornadoes in my viewing area including the Smithville, MS tornado that attracted nationwide support and tracked about 50 miles from my TV station. There was also an EF-5 that originated about 60 miles south of the TV station in Kemper County. The Hackelburg, AL EF-5 was also in my viewing area. Some meteorologist cannot even say that they have covered one in their lives, much less more than one on the same day.
Looking at the storm reports from that day, 8 of 19 counties in my A counties (the ones that count for our ratings) reported at least one tornado. 13 more counties right outside of our DMA but that still receive our signal reported tornadoes. According to the preliminary data, that means there were 17 tornadoes in my DMA and 34 in counties outside of my DMA that still get our signal. That is a total of 51 tornadoes in my viewing area!!!
April 27th was a truly historic day and is one that will likely never be repeated in my lifetime. And to think, it was my first time to ever do live severe weather coverage! Too many people lost their lives that day, though. I have enjoyed giving school and civic talks since then to educate people on severe weather and how to stay safe. My thoughts and prayers and still with those towns that are trying to recover.
The damage pictures you have seen in this post are from when I went and looked at the tornado damage in Tuscaloosa (EF-4) damage. The sunset is in Lowndes County after I left the TV station from doing coverage that day.
Graduation
Yes, a little delayed, but with a post about the 6 month anniversary of April 27th in the works, why not write about what happened six months ago on April 30th?
It has now been six months since I graduated from college. Phew! That went by quickly. I vividly remember the day I moved into my dorm room freshman year…and then drove right back to Pontotoc with my parents because classes didn’t start until a week later!
Obviously I am not going to go into grave detail (for your eyes’ sake and my fingers’ sake), but I think a very brief review is in order. Then I have to give a couple of shout outs.
With my twin sister, Amy, after a football game my freshman year. Fall 2007
My freshman and sophomore year, a majority of my time outside of class was spent at the Baptist Student Union. I was very active with events, bibles studies, etc. I grew so much as a Christian my first two years of school. Who would’ve thought, right? The stereotype is to leave high school to see what is out there–which is code for getting wasted at parties every other night for some people. That never appealed to me. I am glad I got plugged in so early with such a great group of friends. I even went on a mission trip to Italy with Campus Crusade for Christ during Spring Break of my sophomore year and spent Christmas Break in Asia during my junior year. Those were both amazing experiences.
For my junior and senior years (see, I told you this would be a quick synopsis), I was still involved with those organizations (I even played violin in the BSU traveling praise band–Drawn Together), but a lot of my attention was put on meteorology. You can read my About section to get the scoop on why I chose this to turn into a career. I cannot begin to say enough about the people in my program. I loved going to class every day just because I knew I had a GREAT group of friends waiting on me. The kids in the weather department are such a tight-knit group. Several of my non-weather friends were amazed that I hung out with people in my major outside of class! And now those weather friends of mine are spread all over the country on TV or in some other line of work. That works out great for when I want to do some traveling! Hah.
Me at the Coliseum in Rome my sophomore year. Spring 2009
The professors at Mississippi State are amazing. They genuinely care about each student and want them to understand the material. When they say their doors are always open, they mean it. And I did take advantage of that several times. I am confident that they all saw my hard-work and determination, and that is one of the reasons that I was selected to go storm chasing in the Great Plains for two weeks during the 2010 summer with 7 other students and 2 professors. We saw six tornadoes on that trip, and I am confident that experience will give me an edge in my job.
If any of you are reading this that are thinking of going to MSU to study for a career in weather, you need to know about the Climate Lab. It is basically the lounge for meteorology folks. There are tables to work on projects, do homework, eat lunch, or just shoot the breeze with friends between classes. Professors constantly come in to sit and shoot the breeze with you! You can drive by Hilbun Hall after midnight on most nights and still find the Climate Lab light on. It also houses the room where the broadcasters practice and have labs. There is always someone in there practicing which means there is someone to critique you and someone who knows what your aspirations are. Of course there are several computers in there, too. During severe weather, you can find many professors, grad students, undergrads, people not related to the weather program, HAM radio operators, etc. in the lab tracking the storms and seeing what is going on. There is always someone there to learn from. It is truly a unique environment and is one of the first things I think of when I think of the program–second to the great people.
Junior year Christmas in China. 2009
So, college was fun. I applied and got accepted to a couple of grad schools (including the University of Oklahoma), but I couldn’t pass up a job opportunity that came along to be a television meteorologist. I made life-long friends, won a national championship in forecasting with those amazing people I just wrote about, saw Mississippi State football go to a couple of bowl games, basketball win an SEC championship and go to two NCAA tournaments, and watch the baseball team get a few outs away from a College World Series.
THE BIG THANK YOU goes to Mom and Dad. Because of them, I have no debt. Yes, I had some scholarships and grants, but they picked up the rest of the tab. They know how important education is, and I will never be able to thank them enough for allowing me to be a student and fully devote myself to studying (I finished with a 3.92 GPA with all A’s in my weather and communication classes), getting the full college experience by being in extra-curricular activities (including intramural tennis and softball as well as the MSU orchestra), and not having to worry about where my next rent check, grocery money, or textbooks were going to come from. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Really. I hope you two take satisfaction in knowing that I will turn around and pay it forward to my kids one day. I love you both! I promise I made the most of my four years (be proud of that for one thing–that I didn’t go over four years!) and represented you in a way that you would be proud of!
With my parents and twin sister after graduation. April 30, 2011. Happy Day!!
Hail State!
Forecasting Champions!
Proudly displaying our awards at the championship ceremony...click to enlarge. Photo by David Wolter.
For the third year in a row, Mississippi State has won an international championship in weather forecasting. I am proud to say that I was on that team! From September to April, I was on a team of 21 people that forecasted the high temperature, low temperature, fastest 2 minute sustained wind speed, and precipitation for a certain city in the United States. Points were allotted base on how well you forecasted against the rest of the nation–so even if you “blew” a forecast but did better than everyone else, you got points! This is where the game aspect came into play.
Doug Gillham, forecasting instructor, and me
We stayed in one city for a two-week period. This really allowed us to learn the local effects of a location that play a pivotal role in forecasting. Does nearby water keep the morning low from reaching its full potential? Do adjacent mountains provide downsloping air that allows afternoon highs to get warmer? Is the location in a valley? To make it even more difficult, we were literally forecasting for a bucket–a set a of sensors at the local airport. This made for some frustrating days. If you forecasted 93 for a high and everywhere else in the city hit 93 except the sensors at the airport, you were off!
We forecasted for Brownsville, TX (where I finished 11th in the nation, 3rd in my category of juniors and seniors, and 2nd from MSU); Glasgow, MT; Allentown, PA; Huntsville, AL; Muskegon, MI; Seattle, WA; Richmond, VA; Sioux City, IA; Elko, NV; and Boston, MA (where I finished 9th in the nation, 2nd in my category, and 2nd from MSU). This variation definitely allowed me to grow as a forecaster! Forecasting 4 days a week made me really follow the weather pattern. Not only did I do that because I wanted to learn, but I wanted to win as well!
Team trophy, individual plaque, and individual city award (Boston)
So how did we do? Out of over 70 institutions in the WxChallenge competition, Mississippi State brought home the much coveted 1st place team trophy for 2010-2011! This was the 3rd year in a row that we won. The previous six years, we finished 2nd. We beat the likes of Penn State, MIT, Oklahoma, Florida State, Colorado State, to name a few. Hopefully by now, people realize they need to take the meteorology program at MSU seriously! We know what we’re doing.
There was a total of 1,816 forecasters (1,192 in the full-year competition), and 10 of the top 18 were from Mississippi State. We finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the faculty division; 1st, 2nd, and 4th in the undergraduate division; and 3rd in the graduate division. Personally, I finished 17th on the year and 4th in the undergraduate division. Hail State!
We were recognized at the 2011 Maroon & White spring football game in front of thousands of people for our accomplishment, the president of the university, Dr. Mark Keenum, wrote us each a congratulatory letter, there were articles in the university and local papers about us, and WCBI even did a segment in the news about our championship. We also had a banquet for the weather team where we each received our awards. I also got two t-shirts with our names on them that I wear very often!
Getting recognized during the spring football game
A big shout-out goes out to everyone who was on my team. We all held each other accountable to forecast the entire year and to stick to our commitment. This was especially true as we had to forecast over parts of Christmas and Spring Breaks! Doug Gillham really motivated our team. Not only is he our senior-year forecasting instructor, he is one of the best forecasters in the world. No joke. He has won multiple individual championships. Thanks, Doug, for helping us bring home another championship!
Only a few months after the contest (and graduation), it is nice to look back at photos of the team and see where we are now. Many of us are on-air meteorologists forecasting the weather for hundreds of thousands of people. We owe a lot to this contest and to our professors.
Now the pressure is on for the 2011-2012 class. Keep it going! Hail State!!
You can view more pictures from the ceremony by clicking here. Don’t forget to sign my guestbook while you’re here! And posts on graduation, my new job, and my coverage of the April 27th tornado outbreak are on the way!!!! Stay tuned.
Stay Tuned…
I have posts in the works regarding winning a national championship in forecasting, working on-air during the historic April 27th tornado outbreak, and what I have been up to since graduation. That includes my job as a morning-noon meteorologist. I hope you will check back periodically!
Starting April with A Bang
Below is the webcast I recorded on Monday, the day a squall line moved through the Deep South. The event was overly hyped by The Weather Channel, but hey, it got one of its TV personalities to campus for coverage. I was around Mike Seidel a few hours Monday and got to watch him do some live shots. Fun experience.
Three other senior meteorology majors with Mike Seidel of The Weather Channel and me.
Fortunately, there were no tornadoes in North Mississippi, but below is a picture of the storm reports across the nation. I have never seen this many!
Storm Reports for 4-4-11
And as promised, my webcast from the day.
Beautiful Sunset
CLICK THE PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND FOR BETTER RESOLUTION!!!
The picture above was taken from the Climate Lab in Hilbun Hall looking north over Mississippi State’s campus. I had been with four other people for four hours working on a Thermodynamic Meteorology II assignment, and someone finally looked up from the notes and noticed the sky. It provided a nice break!
I am a sucker for spectacular sunsets. They make me be still for a moment in my super-busy life. It also reminds me of my faith and God’s love. How gracious is He to paint these beautiful pictures for us?
This was taken with the AutoStitch application on my iPhone. Yes, my phone!
SeCAPS at South Alabama
Chuck Doswell in the hat
This past weekend I went down to the University of South Alabama in Mobile for their 8th Annual Southeastern Coastal and Atmospheric Processes Symposium (SeCAPS). It was very similar to the symposium I was a coordinator for at MSU, but they did not have any speakers to talk about the broadcast side of weather.
Panel Discussion
Despite that, I still heard some great talks. Speakers consisted of professors at Texas A&M, Florida State, and the University of Alabama. There were three presenters from weather service offices in Louisville, New Orleans, and Birmingham as well as representatives from the NOAA National Data Buoy Center and NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. The final speaker was Chuck Doswell, a man who needs no introduction in the meteorology world. He is considered one of the world’s best researchers when it comes to severe weather. I have been required to read several of his papers for some of my classes.
Doppler at NWS Mobile
A few other people, mostly juniors and a first-year Masters students, and I took a school van down to Mobile Friday after class (I was a bit dismayed to find out it was not the van I went storm chasing in last summer!) and went straight to the first session on campus. Two of my favorite talks were about the 2009 Louisville flood that affected the Kentucky Derby and a talk on space weather.
Official rain gauge at Mobile
We found a semi-sketchy hotel to stay in that night (after passing up on a fully-sketchy hotel) and made our way back to SeCAPS the following morning. There were two sessions on Saturday: one before lunch and one after lunch! One of my favorite things was actually the panel discussion where a majority of the featured speakers were all on stage. We students provided the questions/prompts.
NWS Office Mobile
Lunch was a great experience…and not just because of the great shrimp and crawfish etouffee I had. 
I sat at a table with Alan Sealls, chief meteorologist at a TV station in Mobile, and Chuck Doswell, the world-renown researcher. I picked Alan’s brain about a lot of things and didn’t say much to Mr. Doswell because of intimidation. (I wasn’t the only one.) I also got to talk with John Gordon, Meteorologist-in-Charge at the Louisville NWS office. He told me he was a hurricane hunter for fifteen years and gave me the information to the guy that does the hiring for that. I will be calling soon to see what the possibilities are of me becoming a pilot for the hurricane hunter in the near future. It was be AMAZING to combine my passions for aviation and weather in that capacity! Networking=Success.
Where it all goes down!
The guy who gave us a tour...at the machine that goes out to weather radios!
We finished Saturday with a tour of the NWS office in Mobile. This was not in the original plans, but one of the students from MSU struck up a conversation with a guy that works there, and he offered to take us by the office. It was really cool to see how watches and warnings are issued and just how everything runs. The NWS and on-air meteorologists have a strong connection. It was nice seeing whom we rely on so much. (It also confirmed that I belong on TV…not working with the National Weather Service! I greatly respect them, but it’s just not my niche.)
We left from there to go back to Starkville (not before stopping at a Buffalo Wild Wing’s to watch Mississippi State basketball beat Tennessee in Knoxville for the first time since 1999) and got there near midnight. All in all, it was a great weekend. I made several contacts and learned a lot about operational meteorology. The pictures you see scattered about are from South Alabama and the NWS Mobile office.
The phone on the right is connected to the White House! The middle picture is of a workstation, and the picture on the right is the laptop that processes the information received from the RADAR.
No, this is not from this past weekend but deserves to be posted. It was taken the day after the big February 9th snow event.
Click on any picture above to enlarge it!
Review of the Big Snow Event
Don’t forget to look at the pictures below the post!!!
It has almost been two weeks since our impressive snowfall on January 9th and 10th. As soon as I saw the first snowflakes fall in Starkville Sunday afternoon, I grabbed my camera and recorded some video and pictures and sent that to The Weather Channel. I followed the event the whole day on radar, skycams, and TV stations that were covering it. Towards the end of the night, I was definitely wishing I was back home in Pontotoc.
Grandparents' Frozen Fountain
A relatively warm layer aloft helped a lot of the snowfall to fall to the ground as sleet in Starkville. Compared to snow, sleet is very dense, so it was just too hard for us in Starkville to get significant snowfall out after that. It used up a lot of our resources for snow, I guess you could say. Many forecasts were originally for Central Mississippi to receive 4-8 inches of snow, but the average was about 3 inches.
Snow was plentiful far to the north, though. I became a little annoyed when I saw Starkville was drying out and my hometown was going to be experiencing heavy snow for the next hour or so. Then I regretted not going home for the weekend! I couldn’t stand not being with my family during such a big event, so I ended up driving back to Pontotoc the next morning (Monday). In hindsight, I should have taken a must different route. I was one of the first to travel the snow covered roads between Okolona and Pontotoc, so I had to blaze my own trail–often driving in the middle of the road or even on the left side. (Don’t worry, I passed a total of two cars on the drive.) Normally, that stretch takes me about 25 minutes. It took me close to 40 that day!
I did make it home in good condition, though, and Mom, Amy, and I walked to my grandparents’ house (less than a mile away) for homemade soup! We enjoyed being outside the rest of the day and got a chance to build snowmen representing Mississippi State and Ole Miss–mine and my sister’s schools. They were actually featured in the Pontotoc Progress and on The Daily Journal’s website. When I left home this past Tuesday morning, the 18th, there was still some snow left, but it’s probably depleted by now as afternoon highs this week have been in the 40s.
There is a chance for some wintry precipitation at the beginning of the next week, but I will have a webcast on that later today!
Mine and Amy's MSU and Ole Miss Snowmen
Grandparents' Backyard
Birds are confused!
Winter Wonderland!
Me Being Artsy
Mom & Amy. My snowball in the middle of the sign!
Our neighbor's creativeness. (He's a tennis coach.)
Penny Chasing Our Neighbor's Dog
- It's really awkward when Mark Zuckerburg speaks.
Public Service Announcement
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