I grew up in California, Texas, Arizona, and in Germany. For a number of years I wanted to
work for the airlines flying commercial jets, but my uncorrected eyesight was not ideal and I
quickly found that weather forecasting was my calling.
I got my first job in 1984 composing the daily weather page for a Dallas area newspaper.
It paid peanuts, but it got me some experience and disciplined me into analyzing the weather consistently
and taking accountability for my work.
I continued this job while I was in college and also dived headfirst into storm chasing, with 1987 my first
big season on the Plains. Unfortunately 1987 and 1988 are widely agreed upon to be the worst years in chaser history,
but it's probably for the better as I diverted my severe weather interests to journals, conference preprints,
and frequent visits with NWS forecasters.
A couple of years later I went into the Air Force as a meteorologist, and this marked a major turning point in my life.
I was honor graduate in their weather training program and was selected to work for
the F-117A program at a remote site in Nevada.
At the time, the Stealth Fighter was still a classified project.
After three years I left Nevada in 1992 and was assigned to Dyess AFB, Texas.
As a forecaster, my briefings and forecasts were used mostly by the B-1B Lancer force at Dyess AFB
and by UN Command in Korea. I did get to participate in some high-profile operations like
the Operation Support Hope
humanitarian mission into Rwanda, the 1994 English Channel D-Day anniversary B-1B flyover, and
Space Shuttle mission STS-59's ferry flight back to Kennedy through Dyess.
In the late 1990s the tech boom was underway and I left the Air Force to run my weather consulting and programming business.
I developed mainstream and custom
meteorology packages, wrote meteorology books, ran seasonal storm chase forecasting services,
trained forecasters, and have authored a Weatherwise department for over 15 years and IFR Magazine for about 5 years.
My areas of interest include meteorology, geography, earth sciences, astronomy, general
philosophy, 20th century history, and Cold War and Vietnam War studies.
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