News Team Assemble!

Going through some old stuff the other day I ran across a pile of pictures from my early days in the biz. For those of you who don't know, I worked at the TV station in Harrisonburg for six years. For most of that time I was the weekday morning and noon weatherman, but when I first arrived I worked the weekend shift. Your weekend news team in Harrisonburg in 2000 consisted of yours truly with weather duties, Brad Ramsey with sports, and scoop reporter/producer/anchor Rachel DePompa. Yep - that's the same Rachel that's currently NEWS 7's New River Valley Bureau Chief! Brad is now the general manager of a TV station in Winchester. Those were happy days! If we would've known in 2000 where we would be in 2007 I think we would've been even more happy. Life has turned out pretty good. We would also like to think we gave Hollywood the idea for "Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy" - but we can't take credit for that. Hope you've enjoyed this walk down Memory Lane.

The Ride Of Your Life

This is video from the USAF Reserve Hurricane Hunters flying into the eye of Category 5 Hurricane Felix a few weeks ago. While the "eye" of a hurricane is calm, the outer "eye wall" is made up of very strong thunderstorms. The ride gets more bumpy as the journey continues. The video starts about 20 miles outside of the eye. There are pictures from within the eye following the video. You can see the moon from the cockpit of the aircraft - it's that clear (and calm) in that part of the storm!

The typical "eye" of a hurricane is about 5-15 miles wide; surrounded by towering cumulonimbus clouds up to 10 miles high! Felix, a strong CAT 5 hurricane, had a tightly wrapped eye, as is usually the case in intense hurricanes.

Enjoy the ride, with a little help from "The Doors"! --Jay

Eye On The Tropics

A great way to get caught up on rainfall is by the transport of tropical moisture into our region. The remnants of a tropical cyclone raining out over Virginia could bring us that "liquid sunshine" so many of us desire. However, beware! Tropical systems like Juan (1985) and Camille (1969) are examples of too much rain here in the Old Dominion.

We're just past what is considered the "peak" of hurricane season. Below is a quote they use in the Caribbean regarding hurricane season. I've found this saying to generally be true in the past. If nothing else, it's fun to say!

June - too soon!
July - stand by!
August - look out you must!
September - remember!
October - all over!

The 2007 Atlantic Season officially ends November 30. I've put a "countdown" clock on my blog so you can check off the days with us in the SkyTracker7 Forecast Center.

Hope your week is going well! --Jay

Geography (such as)

As local students return to class, the SkyTracker7 meteorologists will soon be asked to visit classrooms and talk about weather and our jobs. The question often comes up, "How do you become a meteorologist?" To answer this, we usually tell the students to learn about math and science. I also add that geography is very important.

Recently, Miss Teen USA/South Carolina was asked why 1/5 of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. As she points out - most Americans don't have maps, which leads to the problem... such as. The YouTube video above is your geography lesson of the day.