Not as much color in this one as we often get, but I like they way the cloud were moving and forming and unforming. 45 minutes around sunrise condensed into about a minute and 45 seconds

Mt. Hood, December 1998ish?

Man do I love weather.  It has been a passion and an obsession since I can remember.  It truly is how God made me.  Of course I have a very strong political and “religious” bent too.  I joke that my favorite subjects to discuss are politics and religion and that’s why God gave me such a passion for weather.  So I can relate to people with without offending them.  :-)

My weather fascination started very early.  My folks tell me that I was always talking about it even as a very young child.  I have early memories of unusual weather events when I was a wee lad in Los Angeles.  Severe Thunderstorms one afternoon and ice in the puddles at school one morning.  I was born in L.A. but we moved to Oregon when I was 8.

Growing up in Oregon was great for a weather freak like me.  Numerous storms coming off the ocean and in the 70s that meant lots of surprises in the actual weather compared to the forecast.  Fluctuating snow levels in the Cascades, east winds into Portland combining with overrunning warm air bringing epic ice storms, but not to our house :-( and I could go on about the different weather phenomenon I got to witness first hand.

I had the TV weather down.  KOIN would have the weather on first so I would watch that.  Then I’d switch over to KGW and catch most of their forecast.  Then it was over to KATU to watch the tail end of their weather.  This was especially important on the rare nights when the snow level had a chance to come down to the Willamette Valley Floor.  I remember many a frustrating evening watching it rain while I would stare at the thermometer stuck at 36 degrees trying to will it to come down.

So obviously I was going to go to school to study Meteorology.  I had it all planned out.  Go to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and get a BS in Meteorology and minor in Communications.  They had a TV station on campus.  I had a great score on my ACT and was even accepted into their advanced math program.  I was set.  One big problem.  My drug problem.  I still had some growing up to do and I blew my chance to go to school.

KCBQ 1997ish

The story doesn’t end there however!  I ended up moving to Roswell, NM a few years later.  At 21 years old I took what I could carry and bought a bus ticket and started re-pursuing my dream to be on Radio and TV.  Math and Science were always my favorite subjects in school so naturally I went into broadcasting.

I got a part time radio gig in the early Summer of 1984.  That turned into a full time radio gig.  First overnights and then evenings and then Music Director.  After two years I jumped over to TV as a Master Control Operator, directing news cut-ins and also voicing, shooting and editing commercials.  From there it was into the News Department at another station as a news photog, then a reporter who shot his own stuff and also backing up the weatherman and then finally the weatherman!

Adrienne & Mike in the Morning

Lots of detail left out in the above story, but God helped make a way for me when I had messed up and didn’t choose the easier way.  After another 8 or 9 years on the morning show in Lubbock, Texas as a weatherman, news anchor and feature reporter my life took another turn.  Through it all I have never ever never stopped loving and studying the weather.

Now here I am in Tucson, Arizona.  I have a web site and morning weather web show dedicated to my weather passion.  I just can’t help but share whether the audience is big or small.  When you have a chance, check out the site.  TucsonWeather.us and tune in to “Coffee and a Forecast” every morning (yes, weekends too) at 5:50 Tucson time for the live recording.  Or you can just catch up with it later when I post it on the site and in the Facebook group Tucson Weather.

Whether it is mud in the Pacific Northwest, Baseball sized hail in Lubbock, or Monsoon storms with amazing lightning in Tucson, I love weather.  I especially love snow and cold!  But that is another blog entry (or two).

Of course I have other passions and other web sites that support those.  There is also a lot of detail left out of the above story.  All fodder for future blog entries.  I better post this and get to work.  “Coffee and a Forecast” airs in less then an hour. :-)

Cornucopia of Information

I could also subtitle this post, “Fixin’ to be Fall.”

The Autumnal Equinox is upon us.  Striking just after midnight here in Tucson.  Specifically at 2:04 a.m.  This marks the moment that the Sun will be directly over the Equator on it’s journey south.  Of course it’s not the Sun that is doing the journeying so much as the tilt of the Earth as it goes around the Sun etc., etc. etc.  You know.  Stuff you learned in grade school science.  I will mention that “Equinox” is Latin or Greek (I can never remember which.) for “Equal Night.”  Presumably the entire globe has a 12 hour night tomorrow night.  I think it’ll be close.  Your individual equinox may vary however.

I always joke that the moment the Sun is over the Equator that you may feel a little dizzy, dogs may start barking, if you are doing the dishes you may drop one.  Which is of course silly.  I mean, who does dishes at 2:04 a.m.?

Meteorologically (probably not a word) speaking the Northern Hemisphere of our planet (including Tucson presumably) have been in the Fall Season for three weeks now.  September, October and November make up the Meteorological Fall.  The Autumnal Equinox marks the beginning of Astronomical Fall.  So.  No matter how you slice it it’ll be Fall for sure starting tomorrow.  I just hope it’s cooler than 80 degrees at Thanksgiving!

New record low of 18 this morning which is also tied for the second coldest ever for a February Tucson morning.  There's a chance we tied the all-time record February low of 17.  We won't find out for sure for a few hours.  If we didn't reach it, no worries.  We have an even better chance tomorrow morning!

This could be the coldest February chill in Tucson's history.  I go through all of that plus take a look at the cold, snow and freezing rain forecast for Texas in this morning's "Coffee and a Forecast"

Here is a comprehensive look at the cold start originally posted on my TucsonWeather.us site.

Let it snow...

Another storm system approacheth Arizona as El Nino continues to flex.  This storm is much weaker than the last two, but we should still get a fresh coat of snow above 6,000 feet.  From the National Weather Service:

A STORM SYSTEM OFF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST WILL TRACK THROUGH NORTHERN MEXICO WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY. THIS SYSTEM WILL BRING A CHANCE OF VALLEY RAIN AND MOUNTAIN SNOW TO SOUTHEAST ARIZONA LATE WEDNESDAY INTO EARLY FRIDAY. STORM TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES ABOVE 6000 FEET…WITH LOCALLY HEAVIER AMOUNTS ABOVE 7500 FEET CAN BE EXPECTED.

The road to Mt. Lemmon FINALLY opened today after a couple three feet of snow from the last two storms.  Maybe another shut down after tonight/tomorrow’s storm but the skiing at Ski Valley probably hasn’t been this good in years, maybe decades!

Meanwhile, I hear that because of the recent power outages on the mountain, no credit or debit cards can be accepted.  Kinda crazy.  If you go, have fun!  Maybe I can join you, but I doubt it any time soon.  The good news is it will take a LONG time for this snow to melt, and with El Nino still going strong, it’s more likely we will add more before this Winter is done.