How I got started in Meteorology (and some weather tips, too!)

Weather has been a hobby of mine since elementary school. I made my own crude weather instruments, logged daily observations in a journal, made science fair projects and I knew the names of all the cloud formations.

My real thrill came when I was in Junior High School. My father made arrangements for me to meet Jim Smith at the WJZ studios on TV hill. As far as I know Jim Smith was the first real Meteorologist to report the weather in Baltimore.

It was the end of the era of puppets, clowns and colorful commentators reading the weather reports from the National Weather Service. It would soon a become serious competitive business for the networks. I remember Jerry Turner, The news anchor for WJZ, sticking his head in Jim’s office and saying “I need a tease for the 11 o’clock” Jim shot back something like ” more storms on the way” He showed me the latest weather Map from the wire service, a cryptic looking plot of current conditions across the country, it was one the primary forecasting tools then. I also got a look at the news and weather set, it was much smaller that it looked on TV!

I have had a backyard weather station for about the last 10 years and my own weather web site for about 5. I send the data from my station to several networks that collect the data for various reasons, Weather Underground, AWEKAS, Citizens Weather Observer program and others. I also email my snow and rain measurement to WBAL from time to time and tune in at 11 to see if they are mentioned. I have learned a lot recently from following the blogs and emailing Tom Tasselmyer and John Collins, both meteorologist at WBAL TV.

An observation, may people tend to pay too much attention to those one or two word “forecasts” they see on a website or a five-day forecast. They may say, “Sat.- Rain, Sun.- Showers” and already some folks are ready to cancel the picnic or call off the little league game. Don’t stop with these brief descriptions, may internet sites have very accurate hour by hour forecast that may only indicate. a brief shower in the morning or just a 20% chance of a thunder shower in the evening. Try looking for these hourly forecast on weather.com, wunderground.com and accuweather.com. WBAL has an excellent visual called Future Cast map that put the weather for the next few days in motion.

I would like to hear your comments on the weather and your weather experiences in Baltimore, we’ll post them on this site for all to read, I’ve got a lot to share and a lot to learn.