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How I got interested in extreme weather...

Florida covered by hurricane
Adapted from cartoon by Jeff Parker at www.floridatoday.com.

I was born and raised in Melbourne, Florida. Also called "The Harbor City," it rests along the south-central part of Brevard County on the east coast of Florida. When non-Floridians ask me where that is, all I say is, "half way down the penninsula and just south of where they launch space shuttles." In fact, our area code in the "Space Coast" was changed to "321" in honor of our shuttle launches. Needless to say, I took stuff for granted like the close proximity to world-famous theme parks, seasonal space shuttle launches from my "backyard," access to everything I could ask for in a small vacation city without the stress of a metropolis, and finally...warm weather. It wasn't until I went to central New York for college did it hit me that 60 degrees really isn't that cold, and that a little bit of frost on the windows in the morning does not necessitate a possible school cancellation. I realized that I had also taken for granted all the palm trees that surrounded me at all times while in Melbourne. Oh, and how can I forget...hurricanes!

Without a doubt, my interest in weather started when I was very young, and we can all blame it on hurricanes. I vaguely remember watching my dad and his friend and Ph.D. advisor Dr. Iver Duedall of Florida Tech setting up a fence in our backyard in August of 1992. There was talk of Hurricane Andrew, but I had no idea what that was at the time. I clearly remember asking, "What's a hurricane?" However, Andrew was small (in size, not in intensity), and it didn't affect central Florida, so that memory faded away. It wasn't until two years later did the concept of a "hurricane" come up again. I still remember the exact date - November 16, 1994 - I was nine years old. My dad had left for a conference in Washington, D.C., and I remember I had asked him right before he left, "What's that channel on TV that shows the weather?"
"Channel 27," was his reply. Thus, he introduced me to The Weather Channel and the late Mr. John Hope, tropical weather expert. That afternoon, Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall on the southwest coast of Florida and barreled across the state. It exited the east coast of Florida pretty close to Melbourne, and I remember being captivated by the green, spiraling radar image on TV. Simply put: I got hooked. Don't ask me why. I had no idea, and I still have no idea. I just did.

Anything spiraling has always caught my imagination. Call me crazy, but there was always something about water flowing down plastic funnels, whirlpools in a bathtub, rolls of tape in a cassette, elevator pulleys, the spin cycle in a washing machine...anything spiraling...that got me thinking: Where does stuff go after getting to the exact center of a spiraling whirlpool?? Why is there almost always a hole in the middle of a whirlpool?? Where does it all end?? Of course, by now, I understand the answers to the above questions through simple fluid dynamics, but ultimately, this was what got me hooked on the weather. In meteorology, two words describe it: vortices everywhere! For a time, I was interested in tornadoes. I ordered "Target Tornado" and "The Chase" videotapes from The Weather Channel...or I think Santa Claus gave it to me...and I watched them over and over. Early in elementary school, I let a friend of mine, Alex Abbott, borrow the tapes and off-the-cuff, we agreed that someday, we would both be meteorologists.

Owen Years passed, and I made up my mind that hurricanes are cooler than tornadoes (some tornado chasers I know now may give me death threats for saying this, but oh well). Come to think of it, I haven't touched those original tornado videotapes for over a decade now. Who knows where they are now. Long story short, I have begun to pursue a career in tropical meteorology - primarily the study of hurricanes. My old buddy Alex has since switched his interests elsewhere outside of meteorology, but he still shares the same raw passion and respect for extreme weather, especially tornadoes. Since I left for college, I've been happy to see that I'm not the only weather freak out there. In fact, lots of other people share the same interests. But of course, outside of meteorology, I have other interests. They include music (piano performance as well as trumpet and marching band), hiking, backpacking, biking, kayaking...pretty much exploring anything outdoors.

In the summer of 2005, I worked as a meteorology intern for the The Weather Channel. In particular, I served as an assistant to the "expert team" that included Dr. Steve Lyons, Dr. Greg Forbes, Mr. Paul Kocin, and Dr. Heidi Cullen. I helped with research tasks, developed on-air weather graphics, and I learned first-hand from Dr. Steve Lyons what it takes to be a good hurricane forecaster and tropical meteorologist. Eleven years since I first watched The Weather Channel from my living room as Tropical Storm Gordon roared across the state, I finally got a chance to see what it's like to be face-to-face with these killer storms and making life or death decisions that affect so many people across the country. I would like to thank Dr. Lyons for being an amazing mentor all summer. I learned more than I could have imagined. As fate would have it, a year later, I was awarded the John R. Hope scholarship by the American Meteorological Society, in memory of the person who had played a big role in indirectly getting me hooked on hurricanes.

Thanks to Darin Brunin, senior atmospheric science major at the University of Kansas, I was re-introduced to the world of tornadoes. There was no better way of doing that than to have me hop in his red Jeep Grand Cherokee for two weeks during May 2005 and 2006 to go storm chasing in The Great Plains. Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Lubbock...a totally new world for me. In essence, I had finally "returned" to my two original tornado videotapes - except I was behind the camera this time! Click here to see my storm chase logs.

Cornell School of Meteorology I graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Atmospheric Science in May 2007, and I am currently a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology in Norman, OK. Thanks to my earlier field experience with supercell thundertorms, I felt the need to learn more about them, which was my primary draw for attending OU. For my Masters thesis, I am working on numerical studies of tornadoes that form in landfalling hurricanes, an area that has not been studied in-depth. Check the Research page for more details.

I would like to thank my family for all of their support over the years, and also my friends, for their continued fascination with why I'm so intruiged by the weather. I would like to thank Mrs. Cara Middleton, my 5th grade science teacher, for being the first to teach me about weather. I still remember the lecture on cold fronts, warm fronts, and pressure systems (you know what I'm talking about - those little cartoons that just barely scratch the surface of frontal theory)!