Author Topic: The Reason I Got Into Weather  (Read 2493 times)

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Offline Farmtalk

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The Reason I Got Into Weather
« on: December 05, 2011, 05:18:58 PM »
Don't get me wrong, when I was real young, I still had a knack for the weather, there was just something about it that I always like and enjoyed about it. But nothing really caught my eye until when I was 12 and entering 7th grade on August 30th, 2006. I had watched the news enough to know that there was an abnormally moist environment in place, which could lead to some nice storms throughout the day. School let out around 305pm and I noticed that the principal was rushing everyone to hurry and get on the buses, which I immediately noticed was strange. Though I cannot remember why, for some reason I headed to my grandma's house up on top of a mountain a few minutes northeast of Charleston, and it was beginning to get quite dark outside. I walked inside and slung my backpack on the kitchen floor and just made out a warning for a storm heading my way. The second the warning finished the power went off, and the symphony of Mother Nature began. The first thing that happened was some intense lightning, followed by some extreme winds that blew so hard it was unbelievable and the rain began falling in sheets at the same time. Hail then began to fall which is a little rare here. All of this stuff going on at the same time, all I could and wanted to do was just watch it, which i did for 45 minutes straight.
After the storm blew, I headed home the opposite direction because the creek down in the valley had flooded the roadways. During that 45 minute period, 2.8 inches of rain fell, and gusts of over 80mph were recorded because of a microburst that sweeped through. Hail wasnt impressive, but nickel isnt too bad. There was a later confirmation of an EF-0 tornado northwest of where I was from the same storm, which was in fact labeled a supercell, which is so rare here.

It was after this storm that I realized how much I really enjoy weather, and I know I will never forget that moment :-)

--Farmtalk--
Joe Fitzwater
Chief Meteorologist for WVNS-TV 59 in Beckley, WV

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