The Man Behind the Forecast: Mike Buresh on Hurricanes, Headlines & Humility

Welcome to Hometown Jax, the podcast where host Aaron Bacus sits down with the movers, shakers, and everyday legends of Jacksonville's business and cultural landscape. Each episode dives into the personal journeys of local leaders, shedding light on the challenges they’ve faced and the passion that fuels their work. From humble beginnings to transformative moments, Hometown Jax celebrates the grit, heart, and hustle that define our community.

In this episode, Aaron welcomes Jacksonville’s trusted weatherman, Mike Buresh, for a riveting conversation about life behind the radar. Mike opens up about the most terrifying weather events he’s ever covered, what truly drives hurricanes, and why humility is essential in meteorology. From storm chasing in the Midwest to anchoring hurricane coverage in Northeast Florida, Mike shares powerful insights on responsibility, science, and serving the public with integrity. Whether you're fascinated by extreme weather or simply curious about the man who helps keep Jacksonville safe, this episode delivers a forecast full of wisdom, experience, and inspiration.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;14;29
Unknown
Where are your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler? We like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. So grab a seat. Tune in and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jacks.

00;00;14;29 - 00;00;26;22
Unknown
I am so excited. I have Mike Burr shared. Thank you for coming on the Hometown Jacks podcast. My pleasure. Thank you. You know, it was, it is fun emailing people that put their email address on a website.

00;00;26;22 - 00;00;43;03
Unknown
You don't know if you get a response, but you responded right back. Oh yeah, I answer. I tell all my staff, I said, we will answer all emails before close of business. Wow. And it may not be always positive or perfect, whatever, but we will. That's that's always what do you get a lot of emails, people asking you to be on a podcast?

00;00;43;06 - 00;01;00;20
Unknown
No, that's an unusual one. Exactly. Well done. I wasn't complaining about whether or anything. Right. Yeah, it was refreshing. So I want to go through your story a little bit. Then I want to hear about weather. Weather is the talking point forever? I, I feel like, the older I get, I sound like my parents that are always talking about the weather.

00;01;00;20 - 00;01;22;24
Unknown
Like the commercial. Exactly. So I'm sure you know a little bit about that. So I want to start right off with a bang. I like to ask a question that just kind of gets right into it. What's the scariest weather event you've ever, covered? Can you think of one off the top of your mind? Scariest. Yeah. Like that was scary in the in the office covering it with warnings and that sort of thing would be a flash flood in Cincinnati.

00;01;23;00 - 00;01;41;06
Unknown
Really in 1997. Interesting. All the hurricanes, everything else. You remember the flash flood? Yes. But there are there is there would be a pretty quick list of top five, six, seven. Tell us about the flood. Like was it so violent and quick? It was violent. It was more like wood after the fact. It looked like a tornado. Okay.

00;01;41;09 - 00;01;59;18
Unknown
The most devastating thing I'd ever seen in my life is devastating on a number of levels, professionally and personally, because I started working that shift on a Friday night and, it was there only there was one meteorologist out of town, and, I worked and I didn't get home till Tuesday night, literally. Wow. And, through Sunday more.

00;01;59;18 - 00;02;17;16
Unknown
And in the Cincinnati, in Cincinnati, sits on the Ohio River is having a pretty serious flood this year, right? Not anywhere close to the 1997 flood, but still pretty significant. But the Ohio River had a flash flood, which is a once in a generation type thing, that a river, that magnitude that size doesn't typically flash flood. So we had that occurring over.

00;02;17;16 - 00;02;36;16
Unknown
And how do you know that the flash flood is coming? You don't. That's the worst part. I mean, we knew it was a serious setup for for flooding and rain. There were watches and warnings in effect, but we never knew exactly the magnitude because it was passing the levels of history was historical. We never had precedents for it.

00;02;36;16 - 00;02;57;18
Unknown
And the gauges that were measuring it were destroyed. So we were going off observations, talking to people, telephones. Back then, you didn't have much in the way of cell, service, and there was no World Wide Web. Believe it or not, it's how old I am. And, so it, it was an extreme event, and I'll never forget I.

00;02;57;18 - 00;03;17;28
Unknown
On Sunday morning, I thought we had gotten through it essentially unscathed. We knew there were rescues going on. And then I found out during the newscast that there were fatalities in the small town. We were in northern Kentucky, southwest Ohio, southeast Indiana. When you're a Cincinnati market. And there were fatalities in this small town and smaller town in northern Kentucky, and it crushed me.

00;03;18;01 - 00;03;35;05
Unknown
Oh, I can imagine me as a failure. That is that's pretty striking. And you think of a flood when I think thought you would have said hurricane or something like that because you spent a lot of your career up in the Midwest. Yeah. I mean the, the flash flood is one and then two years later was an EF four tornado in the early morning hours in Cincinnati.

00;03;35;05 - 00;03;53;28
Unknown
That was also devastating for a number of reasons. And I covered all of these after the fact, after I was done with my TV thing, and we kind of had everything under control in the studio, they'd send me out to cover the stuff live. And, so that was another big one of an ice storm in Des Moines was the first TV job I ever had in the late, 1980s.

00;03;53;28 - 00;04;17;02
Unknown
I was very young, just out of college, and we had two inches of rain with the temperature below freezing that looked like a tornado. It was the amount of damage that an ice storm ice storm can do is, is, ridiculous. It's not something you think about in Jacksonville, all the tropical storms and hurricanes can start with, Bonnie and Charlie in oh four and go to, last year, Helene and Milton.

00;04;17;02 - 00;04;35;22
Unknown
Right. So that one last year that went up through the Panhandle and went into North Carolina. Helene, like you're talking about hurricanes in North Carolina, right? It's just hard to conceptualize. It is, it's happened before, but it's not a common event. And then there were a lot of other factors that came in together to make that especially devastating.

00;04;35;22 - 00;04;58;10
Unknown
And a, as a generational storm, they'll be cleaning up for that three years. And that's the most deadly hurricane since Katrina in 2005 for the U.S.. Wow. Wow. Gosh, I just didn't put it in that perspective. Well, we're going to get into some great stuff, but I want to talk about your history. So what's there? Well, it sounds like you knew from day one, age two, that you wanted to be in weather.

00;04;58;10 - 00;05;20;04
Unknown
I saw a quote where your mom was saying you were always looking into the skies. That. Right? Correct. That's exactly. Literally. You knew that. I knew what I wanted to do since I was in second grade. Wow. No. When I say I knew what I wanted to do, it was meteorology as weather. Now, I didn't know if there's going to be television or what that, outlet was going to be, but, but that's where it's gone, and I am tickled pink.

00;05;20;10 - 00;05;41;19
Unknown
Wow. I mean, there are so you can remember vividly. Oh, like, oh, I think over the instant. Wow. It's June 2nd. No, second grade. Okay. Second grade. So seven years old. So, but still pretty young and, and there was a we were in us in school, and it was the teacher who told us it was during the winter, and the teacher said, oh, look at the look outside.

00;05;41;19 - 00;05;58;17
Unknown
It's snowing and the sun's out. So we all go to the window and we're looking outside, apparently. And it was weird back then because you were my parents were like, you know, the kids want to do, you know, I want to be a doctor or they wanna be a lawyer, or they want to be a football player, basketball player, which all those things interest in me.

00;05;58;19 - 00;06;12;18
Unknown
But they're like, what do we do with a kid that wants to talk about the weather, see the weather? And they were incredible. They took me to all kinds of things as I was growing up to learn about the weather. I mean, all over the place, the, the Storm Prediction Center that is now in Oklahoma City back then was in Kansas City.

00;06;12;18 - 00;06;31;06
Unknown
They drove me to Kansas City, and I got a tour of the of the Storm Prediction Center, which issues all the tornado watches and severe thunderstorm watches. And the meteorologists that toured showed me around. I got to meet at a weather summit with the company that I'm with now on television, oh, 6 or 7 years ago, which was incredible for me.

00;06;31;06 - 00;06;48;16
Unknown
He had no idea who I was. Of course, he's probably had bunch of kids come through and tour, but I'll never forget that. That's great. It's great to see that kind of outreach, to see people in places where they'll let kids come through and write and help you out. And then I had a high school guidance counselor told me I couldn't make a living with, in weather.

00;06;48;22 - 00;07;17;28
Unknown
That's what I was going to ask you next. There had to be some doubters along the way, like. Yeah. And and what she say? Never find something else. I. Yeah, he just. He told me. You need to find something. I'll take that aptitude test. You know, that bubble test says what you're going to do in your career and be good at or better at it, like so I did, and I'm it was always whether I picked out my school in ninth grade, I went to that school after I graduate it, I graduated, I actually transferred in the end, but graduated with a, atmospheric science degree and off we went.

00;07;18;00 - 00;07;41;05
Unknown
Wow. That's interesting. And and it's almost to a point where it's, it was almost too straight of a path because I don't understand people that don't have that path a lot of ways. I know not everybody knows, Mike, when there is so much done right. And I think my kids were really frustrated growing up because, you know, I'd be like, what do you mean you don't?

00;07;41;07 - 00;07;57;27
Unknown
You know, you had a little empathy for indecision because what you're saying is that your wife would tell you that, so, so it was just a it was a strange path, but I couldn't be happier, with the weather part of it, I as long as I can be talking weather, looking at weather, seeing the weather.

00;07;57;29 - 00;08;21;05
Unknown
So it's still fires you up? Oh, the weather was awesome. Well, that's what if sunrise, sunset, a rainbow thunderstorm, hurricane, tornado. It's fantastic. It's incredible that it is. And we'll never be able to predict it. Which is even better. And by better I mean it's the one thing we don't really know. Well, all the technology that we're better than we've ever been.

00;08;21;05 - 00;08;43;19
Unknown
Right? We'll get a little better, but we're never going to nail it. And I is not going to nail it either, by way. And so, that's intriguing when there's something out there, you still that we don't truly, really understand that has a higher position than humans. And and I do you feel like that there's a way that we could affect it in a positive way.

00;08;43;19 - 00;09;05;06
Unknown
Like, you always hear this. You mean technology or like, you know, something you send up into a tornado that's disperses it? Is that real? Yeah, I think it is real, actually. But you got to be very careful messing with Mother Nature, correct? And the balance that is Mother Nature and our ecosystem in the environment. I'm very anti, messing with it.

00;09;05;09 - 00;09;22;25
Unknown
Yeah. Very, very much so. And those that's the basic region reasons because it all exists for a reason. We have this delicate balance for a reason. And if we start messing with it hurricanes occur for a reason and a very good reason. What's the reason. Because it's transferring heat from the tropics to the polar regions. Okay. And that's a balance.

00;09;22;25 - 00;09;44;24
Unknown
And that's a critical. And it causes the currents of our oceans. And it's a it's a it's a very delicate eco balance, meteorological balance that has to occur for the weather to occur in a quote unquote, normal manner. And you never thought of if you interrupted your, your plane, you're playing God essentially. Right. And boy, that's a that's a tough job to do that.

00;09;44;25 - 00;10;02;01
Unknown
No, I, I think we would do more harm in the end. And then so the other point is okay, so then why would you not try to weaken a cat5 hurricane that's moving into wherever? Well, then I would answer, don't build on the coast so you don't get plastered by Cat5 hurricane. Yes. Or build a lot sturdier or whatever the case may be.

00;10;02;07 - 00;10;21;29
Unknown
It's not up to us to change the environment to the world, the weather. It's up to us to adapt and be smart in how we do it. I agreed, agreeing, I saw something popped up about you that you were a storm chaser. So I. I envision this person like the movie twister and driving a van into a tornado.

00;10;21;29 - 00;10;37;01
Unknown
Is that what you did? Yeah. It's hard for me to to watch twister because it's not realistic, but but yes. Ice storm chaser at the University of Oklahoma in the 1980s, back when it was a true art, because you didn't have, radar in your hand. I mean, it was you. You knew where you were going and did what you did and did it.

00;10;37;01 - 00;10;55;15
Unknown
Well, because you were smart about what you were doing, predicting where it would be. Right. And it wasn't easy. And a lot of tornado chasers, you didn't get a tornado, right? So, so yes, it was fascinating. And I do not have any empathy or sympathy for the people that get, drive into a tornado and have a scare because that's unacceptable.

00;10;55;15 - 00;11;20;14
Unknown
The best storm chaser, gets great video of the tornado or the storm or whatever the case might be and doesn't get wet. And, and that's that's the going to get wet. You'll be safe. Right? And we also just had a, post last week from person that I actually respect, in the business that was out storm chasing and is one of those online, chasers that it's pretty common nowadays and YouTube channel, all that stuff.

00;11;20;17 - 00;11;36;14
Unknown
And he almost got struck by lightning. I mean, it was a very close lightning strike. And that's that's a storm chaser cardinal rule. If you're near the storm and by near within ten miles, because lightning can travel ten miles from the parent cloud, you don't get out of your car. If you get out your your lightning rod right.

00;11;36;17 - 00;12;01;11
Unknown
Very simple, straightforward rules. Interesting. So what is the goal of the storm chasers to get footage? It's nowadays it's typically really just to get footage to get clicks. And in some cases they're making money off of it. But we don't buy anything at Action News Jax. In that regard, back in the 80s, it was true research up to and it still is in some cases, University of Oklahoma still storm chasing, still storm chasers, students and faculty.

00;12;01;13 - 00;12;19;16
Unknown
And you're getting good data on. And the goal was and always has been, how can we get better, more accurate advanced warnings. Right. But that's the key. I'm glad you brought up Action News, Jax. That's awesome. You you are with that. Good news. Jax. Now, how long have you been? But at CBS 47 and Fox 30 Action news Jax since oh two.

00;12;19;16 - 00;12;37;17
Unknown
So what is that, 23 years? That's a lot of years. 23 well, I feel I never quite understood the channels because I feel like you're on multiple channels and whatever. Well we are we're a duopoly, which is not only is it unusual to have one duopoly in a market, we have two duopoly. Right. So we're CBS and we're Fox, and we're on a bunch of radio stations.

00;12;37;17 - 00;13;00;12
Unknown
Okay. So you'll hear us on the radio. And then, of course, a lot of social media, in our app. But, it's it's yes, it's, we're a duopoly. And and you really, quite honestly, in a, in a perfect world, you don't have duopoly because you want as much diversity as you can in a television market. What made me think of it was when you were talking about people taking video.

00;13;00;12 - 00;13;17;05
Unknown
Do you have like, a stable of reliable people out there that send you stuff that you believe that you use, like because you said you didn't buy anything? That's what prompted me. We have a we have a combination of people that we know we can count on and people that will just send stuff in, and then we ask for permission to use it.

00;13;17;07 - 00;13;34;26
Unknown
And, if they if they give us permission and it looks legit and it's pretty easy to, to tell. Is it legit? And, then we can use it. And nowadays it's so easy to get video. Right. And and so you get a lot. And the other day we were tracking a tornado through Waycross, Georgia, which is in our viewing area.

00;13;34;29 - 00;13;48;04
Unknown
Right. And I was getting play by play from a storm spotter in Waycross while I was on the air, which is pretty cool. That is pretty cool. And it gives you, you know, confidence in what you're seeing and doing in predicting and forecasting and what you're telling people that are in this path. Yeah, because you're seeing it happen.

00;13;48;04 - 00;14;05;18
Unknown
Right. I want to kind of talk about a little about your history. So tell me about the seal approval thing. Okay. So it sounds like a big deal. Well, things. I've got some education, I guess. You have to be a degreed meteorologist and actually, the AMS seal of approval has now been replaced by a certified broadcast meteorologist.

00;14;05;18 - 00;14;24;19
Unknown
Okay, which. So the AMS seal went away in about 2000 between 2005 and 2010. Up until then, it was the seal of approval was the highest level that you could get in broadcast meteorology. So I obtained that in early in my career. And is it kind of like a PhD of meteorology? Sure. Let's go with that. Okay.

00;14;24;19 - 00;14;43;20
Unknown
Because I'm never going to be a doctor. Other one. And then and then they replaced that with a CBM, which is a little more stringent. You actually take a written test. So despite having a degree and you have to be a degree meteorologist to begin with, then you take a written test, you also have to send your, videos in of your TV forecast.

00;14;43;22 - 00;15;11;19
Unknown
You get judged by a panel of judges. And then if everything if you're passed the test and you pass the, the video, then you are awarded the CBM, and then you have to keep that up and active throughout your career. Interesting, interesting. It's a good it's a good way to do it. It delineates, you know, that's how I get asked a lot of times I keep telling people, I said, you know, I'd love for you to come to me on social media, TV or wherever it is, my app or whatever the case might be, to get the forecast and warnings and that sort of thing.

00;15;11;19 - 00;15;27;24
Unknown
But I realize that you're you're not always going to do that, but you may not want to do that at whatever the case is. But boy, I hope you're not listening to Joe Blow out there or Joe Blow out there. That's just pontificating about something they know nothing about interest in the case. It could be weather, right? And so the CBM at least sets us apart in that regard.

00;15;27;24 - 00;15;42;27
Unknown
And people have asked me, how do you know? And I'm like, we'll look for their CBM right there. They should have that. Yeah I would think so. So going back to school like did you was it a four year degree? It's a four year degree, but it's essentially an engineering degree. So it's like math and science heavy heavy math and science.

00;15;42;27 - 00;16;07;04
Unknown
And I was not gifted in math. I can do arithmetic with my eyes closed and I can do simple math, simpler mathematics very quickly, very easily. But this is high in, calculus one and two. Physics one and two. Okay. Chem one and two. Thermodynamics. So all this math stuff. So it's a very intense degree. Very few people really finish in four years, especially back in my day, because you don't have AP courses where you could actually come into college with already college credits.

00;16;07;04 - 00;16;26;16
Unknown
So, so it's a long process. It was a five year deal for me. Was there something after that? Or, you know, you could go on to to Masters and PhD? I cannot I was school and still am. Okay I got it. Yeah. Right. It's you know, you're constantly learning in any job, in any business. I think probably and certainly meteorology is one of those.

00;16;26;16 - 00;16;47;29
Unknown
And with technology so quickly changing you have to. So you're constantly learning in every storm you learn something from unless you don't pay attention. Right. So there's a process of continuing education formally and informally throughout the career, no doubt. Well, obviously, it got, you know, to get your your first job in Des Moines, right. Des Moines. So you went right on TV.

00;16;48;01 - 00;17;06;03
Unknown
Well, no, that's a good point. A good question. So I graduated from college. I ended up graduating from Iowa State University. I grew up in a little town in Iowa. And that's where that seed was started for predominant weather events. There was mass, tremendous. Wow. Tornadoes and snow storms. I mean, you go from snow storms, massive winter storms to these summer.

00;17;06;05 - 00;17;26;07
Unknown
Yeah. So it was a great place to grow up and crazy weather. Although the winters are long. Yeah. And, and so I got my first TV or so I got out of college, and actually, at 22, I was 23. I was like, I don't think I can get into TV at 23 years old. That's gone. I was like, wondering that lawn chairs.

00;17;26;09 - 00;17;47;02
Unknown
I was young, actually had hair then. So, so I had a, a teaching certificate in science and mathematics. So I got a teaching job in, in a in Des Moines, Iowa, actually inner city to. And I was just the biggest teaching weather, biggest city. I teach on science. Okay. But weather was part of that. Their weather unit was ridiculously long because I was teaching it.

00;17;47;03 - 00;18;06;15
Unknown
Right. But, so, so I got that gig right away because I needed a job. I was out of college and, so for $18,000 a year, I took my teaching job in in Des Moines, Iowa, and I loved it. There were a lot of things positive about. I knew it wasn't going to be my career, but I did enjoy it.

00;18;06;17 - 00;18;29;25
Unknown
I also taught me a lot of lessons, and I still have kids that will reach out to me to this day from from that class in Des Moines. Yeah. It was it's incredible. That is. And, and it was a it was a big learning experience a lot of ways, taught me about the education system. It taught me about students, it taught me about young people, taught me about their parents, and it taught me about, what I didn't want to do for the rest of my career.

00;18;29;28 - 00;18;48;10
Unknown
And I'm telling you right now, teachers are terribly underrated and obviously underpaid. Agreed. But it just wasn't going to be for my career. And I got lucky the second year. I had a meteorologist come in from the TV station there to just talk to the kids as part of their, whether you're a parent or something. A meteorologist on air media.

00;18;48;10 - 00;19;03;20
Unknown
Oh, really? Yeah. In the morning. And I said, hey, by the way, I've got a degree in meteorology. He's like, you're kidding me. I'm like, no. He said, well, come on in. And that was the beginning of my TV career. And within a year they offered me full time and I resign from, teaching. And it's been TV weather ever since.

00;19;03;20 - 00;19;27;13
Unknown
Well, so you were pretty certain you wanted to be in meteorology. Were you certain you wanted to be in TV? No, not initially, but once I got into college, I thought of that as being a decent avenue. If I could pull it off. And back then, it was extremely competitive. Well, it's still is, but it's it was, it was there was less outlets to do it right and the far fewer outlets and people stayed in the career.

00;19;27;15 - 00;19;46;05
Unknown
So you always started out on a small market almost, almost always. And work your way up. So, so I saw that as an avenue. And when this meteorologist came into the station, I, into the classroom, I thought it was ridiculous for me not to at least throw a lob in there and see what comes of it.

00;19;46;05 - 00;20;07;06
Unknown
And so and so that that were. And once I got in there, then I was pretty sure that that's the route I do. You develop your a reputation of being accurate to where that gets you up the ranks or. Well accuracy certainly helps. Yes. Now unfortunately it's TV. So they're looking at you to right. And I've seen and you had to cut your hair at that point I that's that's actually kind of a funny story.

00;20;07;06 - 00;20;30;16
Unknown
So in Des Moines you know I'm young I didn't I didn't really know the ins and outs of television. I knew I knew what I wanted to do, and and I really didn't care about my hair. But then I got to realize that that was an issue because my boss kept coming in and saying, Burress, you got to cut your hair and, so I started, I started my barber would start to cut it just a little bit each time, and it would just infuriate him.

00;20;30;16 - 00;20;48;01
Unknown
And then it was probably a year later he said, Burress, that's finally about where it ought to be. It was kind of funny, but. And then let you on TV. Yeah, exactly. So, so it was a massive learning curve because I had done no television. I didn't have any television except for you. I didn't do it.

00;20;48;04 - 00;21;07;20
Unknown
Were you petrified, nervous, or you felt like. It's funny to ask that I naturally not. A lot of it was natural. My mom said I had the gift of gab, which is true, but, I'm. And and I'll say this to this day, to a lot of people that ask me when they're going to do big speeches or address a group of people, if you know your material, your subject matter, you're fine, right?

00;21;07;23 - 00;21;24;07
Unknown
The rest of it will just come. You know, you'll be fine. So I always thought to myself, well, I know weather and meteorology now I don't know how to do something like, you know, something specific in TV. Maybe. But I always felt like I could learn that. And as long as I had the true subject matter, what I have to deliver, which is the most important thing to my audience, I would be okay.

00;21;24;07 - 00;21;44;02
Unknown
And I still believe that today. Interesting, interesting. Did you was it hard there in the beginning? Like did you see weather events like, man, I don't know what to do. Like I don't even know what to say. Do do I ask do it. But did you have a mentor? I had mentors and I, and since I had an interest in weather in second grade, I always I saw so much.

00;21;44;03 - 00;22;06;11
Unknown
I never felt like that particularly. I mean, I learned a lot, I watched a lot, and most of it was in delivery. And how you communicate, of course. And, perception is a big deal. And, so you get, I don't know, why do you get, like, people angry at you? Oh, yes. Yes. I'm much better now, though.

00;22;06;11 - 00;22;22;01
Unknown
I let it go off the back of my shoulders here. And I think about it that I used to be, but. Oh, yeah, sometimes they're just angry about the time. Yeah, right. Well, yeah. I mean, so, you know, often times the weather forecast. So I mean, it's not a perfect science, it's, it's never going to be. And people need to realize that.

00;22;22;04 - 00;22;37;00
Unknown
And it's even funnier to me now that people have been for a while when the app was new, say, ten, 12 years ago, the app world, people, you know, suddenly started to gravitate to the app. And like, all these apps are great, you know, and then they're like, oh, they're not right every time either. I'm like, no, they're not right every time.

00;22;37;00 - 00;22;55;01
Unknown
In fact, I can. I'm your best app is what I'll oftentimes say I can it out forecast virtually every app out there and convinced of that. Well I believe it. Because when you see the radar or on the apps, I mean, that's kind of too late, right? Right. It's there. It's a key. Right? So you need, you know, you need a forecasting to see what's happening.

00;22;55;02 - 00;23;16;20
Unknown
And some of them do extrapolate that. But that's an imperfect science as well. Do you have some what's the right really important organizations or people that ask you for weather events like, you know, big shipping companies that are out in the ocean? I don't know, there's something that's like very important that it could really affect a lot of lives.

00;23;16;20 - 00;23;39;04
Unknown
Yes. And I can't be specific about all of them. Yes or not, but yes. Football teams, professional football teams. Interesting. We have one of those. Right. Construction workers, or a common one, and a lot of times that they're, they're like, well, I've got my app, but I need a human to tell me and interpolate that and interpret it.

00;23;39;04 - 00;24;00;06
Unknown
And that's I'm happy to do that. And so yes, there's a and events are a big thing too, of course. Right. And in severe weather schools, I'm thinking schools, I'm assuming they come to you like, should we do this or not? And a lot of schools, church events sometimes. Yeah, it runs again. I'll get something. We get something every week requesting questions.

00;24;00;06 - 00;24;18;20
Unknown
Do you have multiple people helping you? Yeah, we've got answer and all of that. Yeah, we've got it. Now if I get a personal email, I answer it. But otherwise, yeah, we've got guaranteed vol in the mornings, weekdays we've got Corey SIM in the afternoons on weekends Trevor Gibbs and weekends in the mornings. And then they'll those two will also function and move in and throughout the week.

00;24;18;24 - 00;24;38;13
Unknown
Great staff, hard working. They want to come to work, which is refreshing these days. And and some admin people around that to help out with stuff. I don't know, it's really us for. Okay, if you see it on our air, we've built it right and we've done it is all of our own forecast role meteorologist, role CBS meteorologist, role certified meteorologist.

00;24;38;13 - 00;24;58;21
Unknown
And are you kind of the senior on the. Yeah, well, I'm definitely the oldest. Okay. But yeah, I and I don't dictate a whole lot to them. So that you guys are really calling it as you see it. Exactly. It's not a group thing. Not a thing. We will pass our, our forecast on from one meteorologist to the next one, because we are trying to keep a consistent message as much as possible.

00;24;58;21 - 00;25;18;11
Unknown
But if you have to change it, you have to change it in extreme circumstances. I'll make a call. Hurricanes, we start with me, Super Bowl when it was here in oh five, that was a forecast. That was always my forecast. And we would go from there. And so there are certain circumstances. But in the Saint, at the same time, I don't know everything.

00;25;18;11 - 00;25;33;18
Unknown
And we learn something from new storms and different things. And these guys may very well have something that, that I didn't even look at or forgot or missed. Right. So I'm learning right along with them. So I'm happy to have I want that input that's critical for us. And we have a great relationship. Either I have a great staff.

00;25;33;22 - 00;25;51;14
Unknown
That's awesome. That's great. And we have a freelancer, Sarah Gailey also that works with us here. And she's awesome. She's a freelancer. What is that? So we have a freelance meteorologist that when we're really up against it for for needing people to fill in and or storm coverage, she comes with steps right in and she's awesome. She's newer to the staff.

00;25;51;14 - 00;26;08;29
Unknown
She's been with us about 6 or 7 months. Maybe she she she's great. I hope one day we can make her a full timer. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. So migrating down from the Midwest, when did you come to Florida? So I came to Florida 23 years ago. To Jacksonville? Yes. And it was a crash course in coastal weather.

00;26;09;01 - 00;26;24;28
Unknown
Ocean marine. What made you come down here? They offered me a job. Okay, there you go. It was an in company move. I was in Cincinnati. I was, doing the noon and 4:00 newscast there and filling in for the head guy all the time. So I had a lot of experience. I had some great opportunities there.

00;26;24;28 - 00;26;48;10
Unknown
11, 12 years. Wonderful opportunity. Did network stuff today. Documentary in Africa, of all places. I had great opportunities. Really felt like I grew my career there substantially amongst professionals that were the top in the field in many, many different areas. And so, I told them, I said, you know, I'm not going to sit here and wait for you.

00;26;48;12 - 00;27;07;25
Unknown
I can't sit here and wait forever for a better job. Right. And so they actually moved me within the company to Jacksonville. And they asked me, Will you please give us at least three years to lay a foundation here? And I said, I'll give you three years. And so now it's been 22. And when you say lay a foundation, what if there wasn't much there was a pretty dilapidated station at the time.

00;27;07;26 - 00;27;29;11
Unknown
Okay, okay. Interesting. So and it was TV right then. TV. Yep. It was. And at that point we had just become the CBS affiliate because up to then, anybody it's been in this market for a long time that's lived here, grew up here, maybe, channel four was the CBS affiliate up to 2002. So when they launched CBS, it became a CBS Fox duopoly.

00;27;29;13 - 00;27;47;10
Unknown
They wanted me to come in to kick it off, along with a couple of other news, new news anchors and a sports anchor. And we were off to the races. Interesting. Yeah. So you were tasked with trying to revitalize it a little bit, correct? Exactly. Yeah. I and I had nothing. I'll be quite honest. I didn't have a whole lot to lose so I could make it a little bit better.

00;27;47;10 - 00;28;02;14
Unknown
I could make it medium better or I can make it a lot better and you know. So how did you make it better? Like. Well, I worked my butt off, right? Seriously, I mean, I it was the hardest I've ever worked. Did I like being more involved in the community, trying to promote or like how everything makes a new station?

00;28;02;14 - 00;28;21;05
Unknown
Everything we had very little equipment, very little technology. So I had to try to get the technology upgraded. We had only two other people on staff. That's not a very big staff. For all the newscasts that we had. They didn't do anything at that point, really, with the web, which was at that point exploding in the early part of this century.

00;28;21;08 - 00;28;39;24
Unknown
And, I didn't know the area we didn't know anybody. My wife and I came here with a two year old, and she had a baby in the belly, and she's a what she did was amazing. I, I was not home, right? I was at work almost constantly, it seemed like anyway. And so and then we didn't know anybody.

00;28;39;24 - 00;28;58;00
Unknown
We didn't have a church, we didn't have doctors. So you're finding doctors? You're you're I came in, I drove in all night. Friday night. I drove Friday night from Cincinnati to the 11:00 news in Cincinnati. I drove in Saturday morning, and on Monday I was on the air. Wow. And that's not the way to do it. I wouldn't recommend it.

00;28;58;05 - 00;29;17;06
Unknown
Acting like you knew about Florida weather. All right. And I learned from that. And what I learned from that is, first of all, I'd never do it that way again. But more importantly, I would never put somebody else in that position, and I never have. I've always let my staff, when they've come in, knew they had at least a week under their wings, and if they don't feel comfortable, we wait until they're comfortable.

00;29;17;08 - 00;29;35;07
Unknown
But it was fine. It worked out okay. But, how did you did you rely on some other people or you get up to speed on the Florida weather? You bet I was. That a big learning curve? It was a big enough learning curve, yes, but I'm also fascinated by lessons. I didn't find it, you know, at the time when I look back at everything we did.

00;29;35;07 - 00;29;59;20
Unknown
My wife and I have talked about this before. We're not sure how we did it, but I didn't see it that way when when we were in it. You don't see it that way. It's just a challenge. You're just working. You're just. And you're really. We're pretty happy. Well, you were passionate about it, right? Exactly, exactly. Yeah. And so the first phone call I made when I got to Jacksonville was to the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service, Steve Littrell, and we would have frequent lunches.

00;29;59;20 - 00;30;15;06
Unknown
I would then his ear time and timing. So he was here and he was here in Jacksonville still lives. He's retired here now. And I learned a lot from him. And he was willing to ask, you know, let me ask any questions I wanted. And he had the answers. And then I got to know all the people of the National Weather Service really, really well.

00;30;15;14 - 00;30;29;14
Unknown
And they got to know me. And sometimes there can be a it's that's not a, that's not a common thing sometimes be adversarial. Yeah, exactly. And but I'm tight with all the weather service folks to this day. And I think they, I respect them and I think they respect me. They know I'm not gonna throw them under the bus.

00;30;29;15 - 00;30;50;15
Unknown
We need each other. We need to be able to communicate that message and make it in times of severe weather. And if there's evacuation somewhere in our viewing area because of a hurricane, for example, that message. Now that message needs to be simple, concrete, and to the point and uniform across the board. And so they're priceless. We've all had the same classes.

00;30;50;15 - 00;31;15;24
Unknown
We've all had the same schooling, their meteorologists, most of them went to Florida State, and or took a Navy route. And then and then I had my schooling in meteorology at Oklahoma, at Iowa State, you've got the same schooling. And then it comes down to, okay, what did you learn? What are you learning and how do you communicate it and interest and go on from there as you're talking about knowing people, I'm, for some reason, Jim Cantore, he comes to mind.

00;31;15;24 - 00;31;31;25
Unknown
And do you know him? Yeah, I know Jim as because as I say, pretty good. It's not a good sign when Jim Cantore is broadcasting from your town. It could be or not. It depends if they got the forecast right. That's true. True. Do you do you ever desire to do that, like to go to different storm? No.

00;31;31;25 - 00;31;46;27
Unknown
I'm so happy in the local markets now. When I first came to Jacksonville, I wasn't sure that Jacksonville was our last stop. It's going to be our last stop, but we weren't sure at the time because again, and may people know this by watching television. People move a lot in this business typically until, until and unless you're at the top.

00;31;46;27 - 00;32;03;28
Unknown
And even if you're at the top, that doesn't necessarily mean you're staying. But what is what's considered the top chief in my job? The chief meteorologist in my case, the chief meteorologist. Okay, so number one news anchors would be the main anchors okay. Would be the number one job. So it's not to go the national. Well sure. That's your is that concept better that we're not.

00;32;03;28 - 00;32;20;11
Unknown
Well it's higher pay. Yeah. It depends what you want. Here's why I didn't want the National. I had no idea. And I did a lot of national stuff. They used to pay very well back in the day. So it was a big payoff for me. And, but the local level is so much more dynamic, so much more interesting.

00;32;20;11 - 00;32;34;08
Unknown
And you get to know the community, you get to know the people, and you can, you can you can actually help the community. That is a really basic tenet of how I think this job should be done. I may or may not be right. I don't know, but that's how I've approached it, and that's how I think it should be approached.

00;32;34;10 - 00;33;02;05
Unknown
And, why not make where you live a better place if at all possible for sure, or help make it a better place. And, you wouldn't do it. You can't do that on the national level. So and it's also probably more stressful at the national level, although I work a lot, I don't can't imagine really working more hours than I have and did and do, but, I've never after I got to be past my probably 20s, the national thing was no law, no desire or no interest in like any other job.

00;33;02;05 - 00;33;23;15
Unknown
If you do it well and you'll love it, you'll be successful and you'll make more money than in money. Not necessarily. You'll be happier than ever. And the money will come to you. The the, the the good will come. Speaking of your your work, what does your typical workday look like? Are you on a consistent schedule since you're now the the chief or how does it work?

00;33;23;15 - 00;33;42;02
Unknown
It typically, but there are some exceptions. But usually it's two to to midnight, 2 p.m. to midnight. So I go in at 2:00 in the afternoon. We start with the 4:00 newscast. I've got to get everything ready. I got to get the forecast ready, get the radio stations done, the web stuff done. And, and then we have a four, a five days a week or two, Monday through Friday.

00;33;42;02 - 00;33;59;12
Unknown
Okay. So then we've got a, 4 or 5, six, ten, 11:00 newscast. So I get home, I do get a dinner hour, so I'll go home for dinner for a while. If the weather's not a problem and everything else is caught up. And then, I get home between midnight and one in the morning, and then I'm on live on the radio at seven in the morning from home.

00;33;59;12 - 00;34;21;00
Unknown
Okay, I have an in house in the study, studio. So I get up at seven in the morning. So they're short nights, but I don't allow sleep, typically. And, and so that's an, that's a that's an average day. And then if you throw in something like today where I'm doing a little something a little extra, if I go to a school or if I go to some other function or a, you know, we call them appearances, then that adds to the day.

00;34;21;00 - 00;34;38;14
Unknown
And that's not, you know, I don't get anything for that. I don't expect anything for it. Again, it's a community effort. Do you are you on call? You're on call. Yeah, we're on call. Pretty much 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So can you. I know you mentioned you were traveling. Like, can you disconnect for two weeks and go on a vacation or not?

00;34;38;15 - 00;35;00;13
Unknown
It depends not not on the hurricane season. I don't disconnect during a hurricane season and I don't travel internationally during the hurricane season. But from December through May, yes, I can and will at least very willingly and better than I used to. Ever. Yeah, yeah. You kind of address it a little bit. How has the field of meteorology changed over the years?

00;35;00;13 - 00;35;20;07
Unknown
I'm assuming it's just the technology is the main driving change. Yeah, that's the big, you know, radar was a rare to have your own weather radar up through the 1990s was rare. I was lucky in Des Moines. I was at the one of the few TV stations in the entire nation that had their own radar. I drew the maps for it and drew the maps for that radar system.

00;35;20;09 - 00;35;47;18
Unknown
And, using a protractor, believe it or not. And, and so that was great experience. But back then, you know, that was right before then there were still writing on the wall, more or less. You would write in a pen marker, in some cases they would do chalk, magnets for a while. And then by the time I was a TV meteorologist in the late 1980s, we were largely computer driven.

00;35;47;18 - 00;36;08;02
Unknown
But you still had to manually update everything. Everything. Right. So let's say I wanted to show a satellite loop from the last 24 hours or even 12 hours or whatever you would call that up on a phone line back in the day. Remember that sound it would make? I do, yeah. And, and, and you would just and you would wait as long as you can before the newscast because you wanted it as fresh as possible.

00;36;08;05 - 00;36;25;06
Unknown
And you would hope that everything worked out okay and that your imagery would be there. I was a I mean, it was really nip and tuck and you'd had teletype, teletype printers that came out and that would show you the temperatures and you would you would plot those. You didn't have to hand plot them. You didn't have to write them, but you still had to hand plot them on a computer.

00;36;25;06 - 00;36;44;25
Unknown
Right? To be ready. And the radar was right there for me. That was, I would think, like the being able to store and grab information now so fast is probably an advantage. You can kind of see your history. Oh, that past laughable. I mean, it's so simple now people can, you know, the people that I work with now can't imagine how we used to bring it, right.

00;36;44;25 - 00;37;03;05
Unknown
Yeah. Right. But I think we were better meteorologists back then. Probably. Well, yeah. When we were not textbook meteorologists and we certainly weren't techno meteorologists and we weren't driven by models. Right. And so you were better at identifying things that were happening in the atmosphere just by watching and looking and observing those to this day are still the best meteorologists.

00;37;03;10 - 00;37;23;09
Unknown
Do you I guess power going out where you are never happens. You got multiple generators, all this kind of stuff, so you can function all through the storm. Correct. In theory, we are set up to to endure any and all storms. Now, if the if the building was truly damaged or the transmission tower was truly damaged, something out beyond our control, then that might be more difficult.

00;37;23;09 - 00;37;46;02
Unknown
We have we have standby studios set up interested to evacuate to in Jacksonville and also outside of Jacksonville and just had to interesting. Yeah it wouldn't be nearest predict quote unquote. But we could get the job done. And again at that point it's information. You know I've told people many times in severe weather I'm like this isn't going to look like, you know, all tied up together, all nice and neat because it's not I'm doing this off the cuff.

00;37;46;04 - 00;38;02;24
Unknown
And then we explain it them because we've never been hit by a four up have we. Or. No, no, no. That in fact, is that because you always hear because the Gulf Stream is way out and it kind of bends it. Is that true? It's a combination of things. The Gulf Stream isn't near as close to us as it is South Florida.

00;38;02;27 - 00;38;28;16
Unknown
But the big the biggest thing is there are two things. One is the jet stream oftentimes is dipping down in our area by the time the hurricane gets here and it's been steered, but then by the jet stream and it's and oftentimes that either takes it away from Jacksonville or at least not very close to Jacksonville. And then secondly, that, the shape of our coastline, which is inland up all the way up into Fernandina Beach there to north of Jacksonville.

00;38;28;24 - 00;38;47;28
Unknown
It's at such an angle there, you know, from southeast to northwest that it's very difficult to get a hurricane of significant intensity in here. It's just not an angle of approach that's easy for a hurricane. So the the closest we have is door. It goes all the way back to 1964 category two. And really not a high end category two because it came in from the due East.

00;38;47;28 - 00;39;07;09
Unknown
And that's really the only approach that would work now it'll happen that day will come right. But it's rare. The day will come when we see a 4 or 5. Well, I believe the day will come and we'll see at least a 3 or 4. Okay. Okay. And it would be rare and it's rare and it is rare, but the day will come statistically, it just about it has to come.

00;39;07;10 - 00;39;23;01
Unknown
And that's why I was going to ask two is like, do the hurricanes move in patterns like over time. Do you have you found that to be the case or it can be. I feel like we had a string of not many storms there for, what, five, six years or so? You're exactly right. They're cyclic. You bet they are.

00;39;23;04 - 00;39;43;12
Unknown
And so, you know, the Carolinas in the mid 90s were you just didn't want to live there. And they were getting pummeled year after year. And now they've had 2 or 3 in this century. Right? Louisiana went many, many years. No problem at all. 19 2005 Katrina. Then they did go back through a lull, but then they had a terrible spell there around 2020.

00;39;43;14 - 00;40;04;15
Unknown
Florida had an incredibly dry spell after the big hurricane seasons of oh four and 0504 is kind of the poster child of this century for Florida. You had Bonnie, Charlie, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan all hit Florida big storms. And, then in oh five you had Wilma, a Cat three go across South Florida. Big damage there. And then we had nothing.

00;40;04;15 - 00;40;31;19
Unknown
No landfalling hurricane from 2006 through 2016, which is remarkable, right? So remarkable. Does that happen in history? Never. Good question. Interesting. Never has happened. Never have we gone that long. And then so now all of a sudden then you're like, wow, are we done with hurricanes? And then of course, we realize not so fast, 2006 because Mother Nature is all about making making it even, averaging things out.

00;40;31;21 - 00;40;50;25
Unknown
So you it's just a matter of time. And now we've had all these big storms that have hit the Panhandle and West Florida in particular. But, you know, one area that's prone to many hurricanes and that it hasn't been hit often is southeast FL recently, is southeast Florida right now in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm, you know, you go back to oh four was significant, although not as severe as it could have been.

00;40;50;25 - 00;41;09;19
Unknown
And then you're going back to 1992. And Andrew, when it hit south of Miami, it could have been even worse if it had been a little more north. But that's a that's a spot that everybody's sort of like. We're not going to be happy when Mother Nature tries to for sure average things up or get maybe for some reason it made me think of the the Bay in Tampa where the water gets sucked out.

00;41;09;19 - 00;41;27;01
Unknown
Yeah. Or gets pushed in. Either one depends on where the hurricane is, but literally it sucked out so you can see land forever. It comes back in and we see that happen multiple times in the last few years. That is just wild. Yeah. It is it is cool. And that gives you an idea of just how the the awe of Mother Nature, the power, the sheer power of Mother Nature.

00;41;27;01 - 00;41;49;07
Unknown
Mother nature always has the upper hand. I always say, you know, if you can't, if you can't obey Mother Nature, then you better understand Mother Nature. And that's a big you know, we're destined to repeat, unfortunately, history if we're not careful when it for sure building codes. And what are some what are some myths that you like to dispel, about hurricanes, extreme weather when you're on the news?

00;41;49;07 - 00;42;10;26
Unknown
Because I, I feel like I always hear you saying, listen to me. Do what we're saying. Plan. Get the the supplies and all that stuff. I think the biggie is that a hurricane can't or won't happen in Jacksonville because like I said, it will ensure we have the, you know, we have the same odds of a hurricanes, coming within 50 miles of Jacksonville as the big bend of northwest Florida.

00;42;11;03 - 00;42;37;13
Unknown
So, which has been hit mostly recently, three times in the last two, two years. That's kind of eerie. Yeah. And that's going to be a real message that I'm going to try to get out this year. And it's not a scare tactic at all. It's just really it's it's it's it's by nature, it's reality. And so, so yeah, you have to be careful with those stats and realize if you're on the ocean warm side of the ocean.

00;42;37;13 - 00;42;55;04
Unknown
So the Gulf of Mexico off of America, take your pick. Well, that's a whole nother can of worms. Different pockets. Right? Florida or the East Coast. You could have, know, a hurricane. You're right. And you're going to at one time or another, if you live along that coast long enough, do you do you feel like the coastline?

00;42;55;04 - 00;43;14;12
Unknown
I mean, I just feel like, you know, the a1's going down a volcano, like, like over time, that's just destined to erode. Or for 20 years, I've said that our coastline is not east of A1, it's west of A1. And I firmly I it's obvious now that that's the case. And they continue to build and try to reconstruct there.

00;43;14;12 - 00;43;32;19
Unknown
And that's I mean, again, Mother Nature will win that battle eventually. No question to me. So it kind of made me think too. I get I imagine you get calls from insurance companies as get a lot of calls from internet companies. I also get a lot of calls from people that are dealing with insurance. Well, yes. Yes. So having a combination of things there.

00;43;32;19 - 00;43;46;29
Unknown
But yes. Oh yeah. And I'll be giving a talk to, insurance company. I get it a lot to do, a lot of insurance company hurricane talks as we go into the hurricane season. Okay. If you had to pick one piece of technology that you like working with, it's coolest. What? What would you pick? Doppler. Radar. Doppler. Yeah.

00;43;47;01 - 00;44;10;21
Unknown
Doppler. Yeah. It's it's so helpful. It's it was a, you know, Doppler. Seems like an old word though. Hasn't it been around is it goes back to the 19th century. So that is that what is explains? It's based on the Doppler effect. The reason goes back to the 19th century is because Christian Doppler discovered the Doppler effect, which is that is, let's say a train, for example, as it goes by and it's blowing its horn as it approaches, gets louder.

00;44;10;21 - 00;44;31;05
Unknown
Right? As it goes away, it fades. That's the Doppler effect. So that understanding of the Doppler effect has been around for a long, long time. And then it was incorporating the radars. Actually going back as far back as the 1960s. 1970s were the first ones. Radar was developed in the 1940s during World War two, really by the Germans.

00;44;31;07 - 00;44;54;24
Unknown
U.S. quickly followed suit, though, and so they had radar on their planes, on their, old air. When they were doing sorties, they would they would they would go out, do their missions and they had the radar technology, but they weren't they were looking for enemy aircraft. And so when they would come back from their sorties, they would they would have a, you know, there will always be a meeting after they got back and hopefully they got back, you know, a lot of them didn't.

00;44;54;24 - 00;45;12;19
Unknown
But when they would get back, they would go. They would be briefed immediately. They'd be debriefed immediately and and asked what went well, what didn't go well, what was the best intelligence we gave me? What was the worst? And they'd say, well, gosh, the radar didn't work worth a darn because rain got in the way. That was the birth of weather radar quite by accident in World War Two.

00;45;12;19 - 00;45;29;20
Unknown
Interesting. They realized, oh, we can see rain and storms with radar. And that was the birth of of radar, the first generation of radar. And from there then the Doppler radar was first developed at the University of Oklahoma, put into regular use in the 1960s and 70s. I got to work on it when I was in college, which is amazing.

00;45;29;20 - 00;45;47;14
Unknown
That is amazing. And then from there, the radars, you know, they proliferated from their very expensive piece of equipment, but priceless. And that is to me, it's the most useful, tool that I have in the first alert weather. So. Got it, got it, got it. What do you I think you've kind of covered this, but like what?

00;45;47;16 - 00;46;03;01
Unknown
What do you think? What are some things you think wish more people would know about the weather and climate? I guess you're going to say it, but it's it's like Mother Nature wins. Yeah. Mother Nature wins. And also there's no such thing as normal. Okay, there's we got to get rid of the word normal in the weather world.

00;46;03;02 - 00;46;16;12
Unknown
Okay. Average. I'll take average. I can do average. I'll do averages and I'll show averages. You'll never hear normal come out of my mouth. And I try to tell the rest of our meteorologists not to either, because there is no normal weather. It's like normal people. Are there any normal people? No. And how do you get normal?

00;46;16;12 - 00;46;35;10
Unknown
Right. It's how do you get average? Well, you get average by taking a bunch of extremes, putting them together, dividing by however many extremes you took and and that becomes average. But is that normal? No, it's not normal. There is no normal weather. It ought to be changing quickly. It ought to be extreme. That extreme weather is nothing new.

00;46;35;13 - 00;46;56;09
Unknown
There's nothing new about extreme weather. Extreme weather has existed as long as our Earth has existed with an atmosphere. Interesting. We just didn't have, you know, our cell phones take video of everything and then throw it on the web and tell people without getting too in-depth in this of, like, the weather patterns are getting extremely different and how they used to be because of this or this, they've always been extreme, always been extreme.

00;46;56;09 - 00;47;18;04
Unknown
Interesting. Not saying the weather is not changing, right? The climate's not changing, right? More important, I'm not saying it's not changing the climate, but I would tell viewers and listeners to be aware of the sensational headlines that make it sound like just because we had a cat for in Louisiana doesn't mean that we didn't have 150 years ago.

00;47;18;07 - 00;47;34;14
Unknown
Kind of. Yeah. And I'd love to get rid of the word normal and you'll never hear me. You okay? And you'll never see it on my air. I'll use average. Okay, but I'll never use normal. And I'd like to see normal get. Why? Okay, well, we won't use normal anymore, for sure. I'm not normal, that's for sure. What's your favorite weather experience?

00;47;34;21 - 00;47;52;28
Unknown
This you like the most? Snow. Rain? Thunderstorm. Thunderstorm? Yeah. I look at the storm. Don't have any idea why. Really? Just because it's pretty all. Oh, yeah. Well, a power. Yeah it is. And when I was growing up I might have had snow storms, but, we don't have those here, so. And I really don't miss the snow.

00;47;52;28 - 00;48;08;16
Unknown
Right. So fun. I think if I can sit on, if I'm not at where I love to be at home, when an afternoon thunderstorm is coming through and I can just sit there, why in Florida does it look like about the world's going to end? And then 15 minutes later, it's great. Well, why is it like that in Florida?

00;48;08;17 - 00;48;28;06
Unknown
Typically that's your summertime thunderstorms late spring, summer, early fall. And it's because the seabreeze is moving in from the ocean. So it acts like a front. You get these storms that pop up suddenly. They're not really very large in, size, but they're intense. They're large vertically, and they can put down, you know, 2 or 3in of rain in an hour.

00;48;28;06 - 00;48;44;27
Unknown
Yeah. And then the sun's out. You're right. Right. And that's because they are driven by that sea breeze front, which is a, what we call, well, we call it mesoscale small scale feature that isn't long lasting. It's not a big storm system, and they don't last very long, but they can produce powerful thunderstorms, heavy rain. And that's the deal.

00;48;44;27 - 00;49;03;15
Unknown
And that's a that's like a typically a may through October thing here. Whereas in the winter we can get longer. They're not quite as pop up. They're not quite as, you know, haphazard and just here and there. But in the end it's always kind of comical having someone from up north and you're either playing golf or whatever and like, oh, we got to call everything out of this.

00;49;03;15 - 00;49;22;03
Unknown
Give it 50 bucks. You're good. Have you, have you seen the movie Perfect Storm? I have, it's been a long time. I feel like that was like when I knew you were coming here, I just I had that scene where the the meteorologist is saying this is coming together. Is that a thing? A big storm of like, oh, yeah, epic magnitude.

00;49;22;03 - 00;49;39;03
Unknown
Yeah. In which the hurricane, there was a hurricane in that storm. And by the way, I've worked with George Clooney's dad, Nick in Cincinnati and believe it or not, and I met George briefly when he would have been, under ten. Okay. This is that funny? Should have stayed his friend. He treats his wife well. Yeah, right, I got it.

00;49;39;05 - 00;49;54;20
Unknown
I said that was a mistake on my part, that his dad is a wonderful man. He a local newsman. That's how. That's how I do it. It's interesting. Anyway, Yeah, there is such a thing. Is. I mean, you could argue Helene was the perfect storm. Just, you know, within the last year is that hurricane came ashore.

00;49;54;20 - 00;50;15;23
Unknown
It was fast moving. It was very powerful already. It was moving into mountainous terrain. It had a lot of tropical moisture. And there was a front stalled to its north. It merged with that front. It had already been raining in the Appalachians for several days, heavily, and then you bring in a tropical system and it just compounds. That really, really was a land perfect storm, I think, for us to say.

00;50;15;23 - 00;50;31;20
Unknown
So, yeah, there are instances that the perfect storm and that is a, an example that was a tree in the northwest Atlantic. Would be would be an example. Yeah. Have you ever been up in one of those planes that go. Yeah. You've been in one of the planes that go into a hurricane, hurricane recon plane literally flew into the storm.

00;50;31;25 - 00;50;51;12
Unknown
Into the storm, which is actually a pretty funny story. Was that were you petrified? No, it didn't bother me the least bit. Wow. What ended up happening is a very long thing because we it was 0403. So it's been a while. I've actually been scheduled multiple times since then to go up. But you're working, right? Right, right.

00;50;51;13 - 00;51;05;03
Unknown
And my bosses, I got too close. We got to cancel it. And I'm like, oh man. Oh. But we went up. We flew out of Biloxi because most of them fly out of Biloxi, though some are fly out of Tampa now too, or quite a few will now fly out of Tampa. Fact, that's where I've gotten most of my recent reservations from.

00;51;05;03 - 00;51;25;21
Unknown
But, it was a C-130 which are not comfortable planes and transport planes, but they're very sturdy. Very, very sturdy, very reliable. And so we dry, we flew into, I must have flown it, I guess maybe New Orleans or maybe flew to Biloxi, and then commercial. And then we got off and got to the base, get up, go through all the prep.

00;51;25;21 - 00;51;43;17
Unknown
There was a news crew from CNN there we were flying with, and then a couple of other news crews. And, so the day we're flying out, it, it's too close to, Mexico that we can't go into their airspace. So we had to delay it. I don't I think it was almost 24 hours. And so we just did some more prep work.

00;51;43;17 - 00;52;08;26
Unknown
I did some more stories, and then, finally we get to go up the next morning and we fly into these seagulls and immediately lose an engine, and we start to take smoke on in the cockpit. Haven't even hit the app. Abnormal loves. And so all of a sudden back from the these the, the Navy Air Force Reserve folks, they're like they're bringing out all these, oxygen masks.

00;52;08;28 - 00;52;26;16
Unknown
And so I'm like, you know, it's not good. And they're like, we're just going to turn around and and we did and landed smoothly. It was no problem. And we're up in another plane. They always having a second plane ready to go. We're up within half hour because that that that information is critical, especially back then is still to this day but especially back then.

00;52;26;19 - 00;52;45;21
Unknown
So, so as smooth in the middle in the I. Well, sometimes I just fly above it or not. Yeah. You do you do everything. Okay. The funny part about that coming back on that emergency landing was the CNN crew. The reporter that was embedded with us was scared to death. Which. Oh, I get it. That's fine.

00;52;45;22 - 00;53;05;18
Unknown
But the crazy thing is, a few weeks later, I saw, or I think maybe a few months, he was embedded with our troops in Iraq, and I was like, I think I would take the hurricane. Yeah. Any case, yeah. You fly over through it. It's about a 12 hour mission. It's really long. And after the initial adrenaline of seeing the eye and going through it and you're like, so can we go back now?

00;53;05;19 - 00;53;27;11
Unknown
Right? Right. It's just not a comfortable plane. No. It's bumpy. It's very, very cold. And I just remember getting back our it was in the evening, it was almost dark and we were just exhausted, but priceless. That and really Grace, those pilots got to be unbelievable. You know, they've lost one plane in 60 or 70 years. Unbeliever.

00;53;27;11 - 00;53;48;08
Unknown
Isn't that amazing? It is amazing. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Well, finishing up here, I got a couple quick, other questions. What's your what's some advice you would have? Someone wants to be a meteorologist. Well, I get that kind of advice all the time. I see a lot of school students that are interested in meteorology. If as far as meteorology goes, if you really think that's your interest, you got to buckle up on the math and science.

00;53;48;11 - 00;54;09;15
Unknown
Make sure you're taking as many math and science courses as you can. That's interesting. I, I wouldn't have known that. Yeah. It says essentially an engineering degree. So, it is a lot of math and science and, then, you know, I always tell people mostly, especially the, the younger students, you know, find something you love. And if meteorology is your love, you'll be happy the rest of your life, no matter what you end up doing.

00;54;09;15 - 00;54;31;03
Unknown
I'm convinced about that, about any job. I mean, it sounds cliche and simple. I am convinced of that. You can. We can tell your passion about that for sure. Do can you talk about anything when you go to a cocktail party under the weather? I mean, do people like weather is you're kind of like the Tom Brady and somebody ask him about a Super Bowl, right?

00;54;31;04 - 00;54;51;09
Unknown
I'm like, yeah. Does people ask you anything else or not? Yeah. It's almost always weather. And I have a lot of other interests. Yeah. But they don't seem to care. No funny story. So not too long. Well, within the last few weeks, I was on an international trip with my 85 year old dad. It was awesome. But, for about three day and dad talks a lot about.

00;54;51;12 - 00;55;14;28
Unknown
He's very proud of of what I've done, whether or not I deserve it, I don't know. And he was also an incredible parent. Both of my mom's parents, they really they supported her. There was a great interest. So we were on this trip, and we were we were traveling with about ten other people who were from all over the country and, and all over the world, and some businesses and and nobody knew what we did.

00;55;14;28 - 00;55;30;04
Unknown
Nobody asked or anything. Nobody knew what I did. Dad's retired, and it wasn't until about the third and some people had shown me their weather apps are like, here's what's going to happen. And all this, you know? And I was like, oh, not no, I don't yeah. And so about three days in and finally somebody asked me. And so I had to come clean.

00;55;30;04 - 00;55;49;14
Unknown
And then it spread like wildfire. And I had this guy come to me who with his phone, he's like, man, I was telling you all about this weather app and you're on me of like, it's inside, man. And I feel really dumb right now. And one is one of the women at the table leaned over to me and whispered, she goes, I'll bet you're glad that nobody knows you here.

00;55;49;16 - 00;56;09;08
Unknown
Yeah, it's kind of nice. Yeah, that is funny. Last question. Do you have a mentor or someone that you can point to in your career that. Oh, yeah. The the star at the top. Nobody else would know him. But he's Craig Johnson, and he was at the NBC affiliate in the little town that I near the little town that I grew up in in Iowa.

00;56;09;08 - 00;56;25;07
Unknown
And he would allow me, quote unquote, to come visit once a year because it was a big deal. It was 50 miles away, and mom and dad both worked full time jobs. It wasn't an easy thing. And they would take me about once, maybe twice a year. And then I bent his ear, going all the way through college.

00;56;25;10 - 00;56;45;14
Unknown
About how to do things. And I credit him for everything that I've done. He probably doesn't know that. I mean, I've told him that. I mean, people tell you all kinds of things, and to believe it or not, they grab it. But I, I approach the career the way he approached it, which is quote unquote serious, although I don't I don't feel like I take myself too seriously for a number of reasons.

00;56;45;17 - 00;57;04;01
Unknown
But when it matters or I mean, I'm serious about trying to do it. Well, I want to be accurate. That's something I get all the time to is, you know, it must be nice to get paid. Right, right, right. I got an answer for that but I don't really want to go that. Right, right, right. But so he would be number one.

00;57;04;01 - 00;57;22;11
Unknown
He's passed now. And and then there are a number of people in the interim, and I watch a lot. I would watch a lot of people or, and watch things around me. I'd watch reporters or his reporters are a good a good reporter. It was Ken, man. Could very well be a very good meteorologist, as far as delivery and communication.

00;57;22;14 - 00;57;46;04
Unknown
So there's a there are a lot of people, that I have looked up to and that have been mentors, but he would be number one. Nobody knows how many people I would know, but that's probably but it's interesting. It would be num number one. And and then I would say my college or my high school student counselor, it would be for all the wrong reasons.

00;57;46;04 - 00;58;01;29
Unknown
Right. It's funny that everybody's got a story that and told them not to do something and that motivated them. Yeah. You were already motivated before then. Yeah. It's it's good. I mean, I and I keep that in the back of my head. And I tell people I'm like, if you want to do it, do it. Yes. Don't. It's okay for sure.

00;58;01;29 - 00;58;19;07
Unknown
It's, you know, you may or may not be successful, but you'll never regret trying. That's right, that's right. Well, this was amazing. I really appreciate your time. You coming here not knowing who I was? This was really an honor. And, Mike, thank you very much. Well, good luck with the endeavor. It's awesome. It's good stuff. Thank you.

00;58;19;07 - 00;58;19;23
Unknown
Mike,

00;58;19;23 - 00;58;33;29
Unknown
The Hometown Jack's podcast is recorded and produced by First Coast Mortgage Funding. Located in the heart of Jacksonville. Do you want to be our next guest? Visit our website at Hometown Jack's podcast.com. We can't wait to hear your story.