Trick or Treat

Going "Home"

Do you ever have one of those weekends that's over in the blink of an eye? Since I work weekends, that rarely happens for me; however, next weekend my wife and I are going to our Alma mater, Emory & Henry College for Homecoming. It's hard to believe it's been nine years since we graduated! If you've never been there, Emory is a beautiful campus. This time of the year is especially nice with the autumn color and crisp fall air. It was truly a wonderful school. I received a solid education there, and met some great friends. While next weekend will probably be over in the blink of an eye, I'm going to enjoy it... thoroughly! Have a great week! --Jay

Mountain Lake Dries Up

Several months ago, I blogged about Mountain Lake in Giles County. Perhaps you remember the slide show I placed on this blog showing the last little bit of water in the lake. Our interest in the resort was sparked even more the weekend before last when the newsroom phone rang and a viewer told us skeletal remains were found on the dried out lake bed. The following day, NEWS7 photojournalists traveled up Route 700 just outside of Newport to report on the story. They brought back unbelievable video of the lake bed. I was shocked, and saddened, by what I saw. As a Giles County native, and former Mountain Lake Hotel employee, it's hard to imagine the lake completely gone. My dad and I drove up last week to see it for ourselves. I couldn't believe my eyes. Completely gone!

Today, the weather department received an email from a viewer. Her name was Brenda from Blacksburg. She copied a link to us from photographer Richard Cobb. Mr. Cobb has done an *amazing* job matching up "bank full" photos of Mountain Lake to the now empty basin. These pictures really help you grasp the magnitude of the situation. Just click on the link below and make sure javascript is enabled on your computer. Simply drag your mouse on and off of the pictures to see the before/after shots. Thanks again Brenda for passing this along. And special thanks to Richard Cobb.

http://www.sivtac.org/mtlake/beforeafter.php

Take a hike, Ike!

The upper Texas coast is bracing for Hurricane Ike. He should come ashore late Friday night/early Saturday near Galveston. Ike will present major storm surge issues, and flooding rains of at least 5-10" in coastal regions of Texas and southwest Louisiana. Galveston is home of the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history. On September 18, 1900, the "Great Galveston Hurricane" hit. It was a category 4 storm. Between 8,000 and 12,000 people died - mostly because of storm surge. You can bet Texans are watching Ike closely. The picture above shows Ike making landfall earlier this week in Cuba. The Cuban Meteorological Institute reported waves five storeys high. This picture proves it.

I've Got "Class" (Not really)

I think one of the most rewarding aspects of my job is going to local schools and talking to youngsters about weather and science. They always seem to enjoy seeing the "weatherman" and I always enjoy their questions, comments and eagerness to learn!

Last year I decided to take some notes on my visits. I came up with a lot of numbers! Check this out: I visited 27 schools, talked to 1,968 students, and traveled 2,886 miles around our viewing area. The largest group I talked to was 290 students at Woodlawn School in Carroll County. The farthest trip was 228 miles to Eureka Elementary School in Charlotte County.

I enjoyed all the journeys last year and look forward to visiting many of the same schools this year. The first this year: Next Thursday when I go to Woolwine Elementary in Patrick County! Have a great school year everyone!

Someone has too much time!

Johnny Tsai has too much time on his hands. Johnny is one of many creative folks here at the station who makes the graphics you see on WDBJ everyday. Monday night was obviously a slow night for him. On "News 7 At Ten" this graphic popped up with the nightly trivia question. The question was about Batman and Star Trek. Here you can see anchor Keith Humphry starting as Captain Kirk, and me as Batman. Look at my six pack abs!

HD Weather Gets Better!

You may start noticing some of our weather maps have a blue "SkyTracker7 LIVE CONTROL" panel on the top right of your screen. This allows Robin, Brent, Leo and I to have tools available to us on the screen - just by touching them. We can zoom in on an area, show the direction a storm is moving, draw on the screen and much, much more - all live! We call this feature "hand tracking." It's actually something that we've been able to do for years - but now it's much more refined. In the old days, we had a clicker attached to a cord we had to use in order to hand track. It was more like jump roping instead of hand tracking. Now, Robin has bought us the Cadillac of all wireless remote controls from our weather vendor, WSI. It's a great piece of equipment, and I figured this past weekend I should give it a test drive. Above, you can see me doing a "box zoom" on the Charlottesville area. I was zooming in on that part of the state to show how clear the skies were, while southwestern Virginia was clouding up. Our new clicker has eight buttons on it, so our fingers are busy selecting tools from the on-screen LIVE CONTROL panel, changing sources, advancing maps and more. Not only that, but our new toy can also change our weather graphics from out on the SkyTracker7 Weather Deck. This thing has a heck of a range, and in a pinch, could be used as a paperweight. Just thought you would be interested in our newest toy. It's another thing in our weather arsenal!

Quickly, one more note.

I got a call after News 7 at Six this Sunday from a very interesting viewer. His name is Ed. Ed is a retired Trooper with the Virginia State Police. He had heard me mention last week during one of my weathercasts the 39th anniversary of Hurricane Camille making landfall in Mississippi. Ed was a young Trooper in 1969, when the remnants of Camille slammed into Nelson County. To say I've always had an interest in "Camille" is an understatement, but I've never met or talked to anyone who lived through the flooding in Nelson County or worked the scene afterwards. Ed is my new best friend! He instantly had me hooked with his stories, and he's promised to send me tons of information on the Nelson County event he's compiled. I can't wait to go through it all. If it turns out to be as good as I think, I'll post something on this blog soon.

Keep havin' a great week friends! --Jay