What started your interest in weather?

[Pas_Bon]

Was it a singular event? A collection of weather events? Always love to hear other stories.

Mine was a singular event - Hurricane Danny (especially the eye) in 1985 as a 5yr old in South Louisiana.

I vividly remember playing with a Smurfs Colorform sticker set my mother had gotten for me to pass the time while the winds raged outside.

I couldn’t get enough weather info after that. I would watch John Hope and the Tropical Update religiously and come up with my own tracking charts.

My mom bought me this small weather info book right afterwards and I remember gawking over the photos of tornadoes and the Richelieu apartments before and after photos from Camille. I slept with the book in-hand for years. I wish I knew where it was. Pale blue cover. Soft cover. Small book.

I’ve been in several other hurricanes since (including Katrina in Nola) and it still gets my adrenaline going.

I started college with the goal of becoming a meteorologist and becoming an NHC forecaster. Life had other plans and I became a dentist. Lol

Oops.

I was born in Abbeville, Louisiana.

LSU undergrad, LSU Medical School (Alzheimer’s Research), then LSU School of Dentistry.

I have been living in League City, TX for nearly a decade now.

[don]

For me it was the 1997 ice storm and Tropical storm Frances.We woke up to water entering our house the morning after Frances made landfall. We had to be rescued,being a kid at the time I thought it was fun lol.

[Cpv17]

My interest in the weather started very young. I was probably around 5 years old and my older cousin took care of me a lot and he was always keeping track of the weather and watching TWC. He’s the one that introduced me to it and now I know more about the weather than he does lol when I was in middle school and high school in El Campo, my nickname was “weatherman”. A bunch of people would ask me what’s the forecast looking like. Even some of my teachers knew how crazy I was about the weather. A lot of people thought they’d be seeing me on tv one day.

The 1997 ice storm was crazy! I remember waking up and opening the front door and everything was covered in a solid sheet of ice. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Then a few months later we got hit by Tropical Storm Frances and I can still remember to this day looking through the windows into the backyard and seeing our trees just swaying back and forth. Those 2 events made me so happy and excited and only escalated my passion for the weather.

[Stratton20]

Hurricane harvey is what started my passion for weather or extreme weather events, the February 2021 winter storm was and still is to this day the most bizarre event ive ever been through

[Rip76]

For me it was my dad.
He was a weather freak. He always had a weather radio going in the kitchen.

Growing up in Texas City I would always hear stories about Hurricane Carla at every family event. Texas City was flooded out really bad from Carla. Most everyone that lived on the areas near the dike and that side of town had 3 to 4 feet of water in their houses.

The first storm I remember (because we evacuated to Somerville), was Hurricane Allen in 1980. That storm was a monster, and good thing it kept moving west.

But the one that kicked it all off for me was Hurricane Alicia. I was 10 years old.
I've been fascinated ever since.

[Cpv17]

For me it was my dad.
He was a weather freak. He always had a weather radio going in the kitchen.

Growing up in Texas City I would always hear stories about Hurricane Carla at every family event. Texas City was flooded out really bad from Carla. Most everyone that lived on the areas near the dike and that side of town had 3 to 4 feet of water in their houses.

The first storm I remember (because we evacuated to Somerville), was Hurricane Allen in 1980. That storm was a monster, and good thing it kept moving west.

But the one that kicked it all off for me was Hurricane Alicia. I was 10 years old.
I've been fascinated ever since.

That’s awesome! I hear all kinds of stories about Hurricane Carla from my parents all the time. I believe that was the last big time major that directly hit our area making landfall at Port O’Connor.

[srainhoutx]

My Grandmother was the one who encouraged my very early interest in weather and science. Hurricane Carla lit the fire for my passion of weather and began my search for knowledge of all things weather.

In Junior High I began drawing up daily weather maps and providing daily forecast in Science Class. That interest continued to grow throughout the 70's and early 80's. Hurricane Alicia certainly sealed my passion and the interest became more of understanding forecasting. With the age of Satalite and Computer models in the late 80's, I started honing my skills that carried on into the 90's when I was responsible for our fleet of delivery trucks and sub contractors within our Courier Business. The early 2000's, while living in Key West, the need for accurate and reliable weather forecasts became a way of life, particularly 2004 and 2005. I found online weather communities like S2k and the old KHOU board during those days. Life brought me back home to Houston laye 2005 and I reconnected with my old dear friend Dan Meador. The rest is history and I still keep my skills up and have learned about forecasting Winter Weather in microclimates of the Mountains of Western NC. Tropical weather is still a passion and I intend to be much more active this Hurricane Season!

[Katdaddy]

I have always been fascinated with weather. I experienced 3 weather events at 4 and 5 years old S of Houston in Pearland, TX that I will always remember.

1972 - Tornado - May 12th - 4 years old
1973 - Snowfall - Feb 9th - 5 years old
1973 - TS Delia (70MPH) - Sep 4-6 - 5 years old

I decided in high school to keep weather as a lifetime hobby since math was not my strength.

Throughout life I have kept family, friends, and co-workers updated; as well as, support the NWS, NHC, and SPC. When the internet arrived I found many people just like me. The GoPBi weather forum was the beginning which was followed by the S2K forum.

The Extreme Tornado Tours and National Tropical Weather Conferences have been awesome and amazing as I continue to follow my lifetime weather dream.

[ClearLake77]

We moved to Texas 15 years ago. I was terrified of thunderstorms. My oldest son was fascinated by the weather and NOAA sent him books on wall clouds and what formations meant, rain catchers.... we paid for premium radars. It started bonding with him

Then after Harvey I started doing relief work. Understanding the weather and it's impact fascinates me. I'm trying to learn more. I have been a silent lurker in these forums for about 4 years and finally mustered up the courage to register

[Stormlover2020]

Hurricane Andrew

[MontgomeryCoWx]

1989 Christmas Week Storm in Longview.

Went from 75 to 20 in minutes and a severe thunderstorm turned into a severe sleet storm with lots of lightning and wind.

Dumped 2-3 inches of sleet on us in no time then transitioned to snow. It was a magnificent Winter wonderland through Christmas.

I’ve been awe struck by Winter storms since then. I’ve been in my fair share of crazy ones in a number of states and Canada, but that one was my first love and possibly the most rare.

[AtascocitaWX]

I grew up in Galveston, so Alica is what sparked my interest in weather. So Hurricanes have always been fascinating to me. Also I lived in Tennessee for 2 years and the snow storms there also played a role with being a Weather guy for me.

[DoctorMu]

NASA - moon landing.

We live in Illinois when I was young: tornadoes. One twister went over our house - we were down in the basement with my mom behind the furnace. When the sky is greenish purple and the tornado siren went off, it was Go time - as in Go Below.

We moved to NC when I was 9 year old: Got a refractor telescope. A total solar eclipse, the age of satellite images, and hurricane season peaked my interest in weather, space. Dynamic, complex systems became my thing.

[sambucol]

My mother loved watching the weather. She knew when anything tropical was brewing because she said she could feel it. I think what she felt was the barometric pressure changes. This was many years ago.

I actually went through Carla as a young child, but I remember it. I was scared and excited at the same time.

But the reason I am a weather nerd is because of my mother. She was one, too, and knew what was coming by watching nature, animal behavior, and what she sensed.